Digital painting by Sukanto Debnath (Hyderabad, India, and Hungary, 2009)*
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonor’d, and unsung.
—Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel
“No-see-ums” are small biting flies
Not visible to careless eyes.
Their scientific name
is Ceratopogonidae.
So small, they nip and get away.
You’re itching for another day!
These punkies’ counterparts in brain
Are types of a deceiving strain.
The more ridiculous the tale,
They'll preach it to you without fail.
As creatures of fantastic lore,
They scarcely know what lies in store.
What they're taught by their mad master,
They gulp right down to void the faster.
Ignorance has been called a sin—
And so it is, deployed to win
By those whose end it is to harm,
By retailing a false alarm,
The polity from which they spring,
Buying into a con man's thing.
I’m sure you know now who I mean.
You met him in a nightmare dream.
October 11, 2024
Commenti