A Tempest

Lord help me, if I should go out
On such a night!
Likely, I’d suffer the same plight
As those poor fools who in their ignorance
Actually attempted to perform my experiment!

Twas a mere flight of fancy
A whimsicality
Something to capture imaginations
Not for practical application!
Lord, I’m a country boy
A hundred times I’ve espied
A lightning strike
On a forest height
There’s no quicker road to Hell
Save putting a ball through your temple!

Ah well, I must do something.
That damn Frenchman
-- Damned ingenious lot, the French –
Actually found a way
To do my experiment safely!
And now, they say
I’m just a backwoods liar
An unscrupulous manipulator
Trying to gain fame
Through other people’s pain.

Which , of course, I am.
After all, I’m an American!
Look what we did to the Indians.
Took all their land, then did them in!
It’s the story of our Nation!

Well, at least I have a profession.
I am a publisher.
As such, I can demonstrate professionalism
To these scientific amateurs.
I shall use my skill with quill and pen
To put a stop to this discussion
I shall claim my own success in
This kite and lightning question!
The specifics won’t be mentioned.
Indeed, this may start a scientific tradition.

You know, this very aspect of deception
May itself be an attraction
Tis a most essential function
For most any politician
Now that it is my ambition
To become a great patrician
I must show my inclination
To be ruthless in decision.

Tis a most essential quality
In all the great societies
In dealing with reality
To show impartiality
For the essential quality
In all our great society
Is seeming to deal equally
With those we use exploitively.

All the ladies shall adore me
As a liar and a bawdy
For there’s nothing quite so tawdry
As uprightness and sobriety
I shall cut a dashing figure
In the heartland of the empire
Who knows what fate has before me
Perhaps Father of my country!


© Copyright Jerome Raymond Kraus 2005