A Jen Too Many

Diane Duane quoted Kipling in her blog recently. OK - a month ago today. I forgot I had her bookmarked until I tripped over the bookmark while looking for something else, and while I was catching up I found the Kipling quote.

I thought the poem she quoted was remarkably apropos of the current U.S. economic situation. (Go - read her post. Follow the link above.)

She already posted the poem on her blog, but I'm going to post it here, too, since I am currently in a state of mind where everything I write is obvious garbage and even a one word sentence, like, "Hello," is clearly the worst thing anyone, anywhere, has ever written, and I should burn all my pencils, delete all my files, and flush (page by page to avoid destroying the plumbing) every spiral-bound notebook whose pure white pages I have ever profaned with my words.*

So it seemed like a good idea to put something up here that is absolutely guaranteed to be fantastic writing.

Jennifer's fantasy of the week: Tattooing the complete poem on the bodies of every politician, banker, and CEO who contributed to this mess.

"we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things" Sheesh. Words fail me, they really do.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings
Rudyard Kipling

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place;
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four—
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

. . . . .

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man—
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:—
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
___________________________________________

*Actually, I'm not even going to post this. It is going to join the multitude of drafts I have created in the last couple of weeks, which were all utterly trite, meandering, pointless, and stinky, smelly garbage. You are not reading this. It is all an illusion.