The Mad Gardener, drawn by Harry Furniss
He thought he saw a Garden-Door
That opened with a key:
He looked again, and found it was
A double Rule of Three:
“And all its mystery,” he said,
“Is clear as day to me!”
—Lewis Carroll, “The Mad Gardener’s Song” in Sylvie and Bruno (1889)
Let’s pretend we’re happy.
Let’s pretend we’re sane.
Let’s pretend depression’s
Just “skin in the game.”
Let’s pretend democracy
Is what we practice here;
Not genocide and apartheid
For those we need not fear.
A million elsewhere starving—
It’s after all their right.
Thousands blown to fragments—
But do it out of sight!
We multiply together,
We cross our hearts and die,
Just like all those others
Now gone without a sigh.