The world is mad, my masters,
The poet had the facts
To prove this sweeping statement,
In man’s punk-headed acts;
For since the day when Adam
Partook of the wrong tree,
We’ve toiled, and slipped, and blundered;
“What fools these mortals be”.
Take out your horse or auto,
And drive the country roads,
And see the fields and orchards
Bearing their precious loads.
Old Mother Earth produces
With lavish hand and free,
But half is lost or ruined
By man’s stupidity.
Ten thousand tons of apples
Will surely go to waste
While poor folk in the cities
Will hardly get a taste.
We take good wheat and barley
And manufacture bums,
Whose wives and little children
Are starving in the slums.
The man that’s poor as woodwork,
And nearly always broke,
Can somehow find a nickel
To puff away in smoke;
While those who have the money
To eat and drink their fills,
Are sure to over-do it,
And run up doctor bills.
If, when the times are peaceful
I kill one man, by heck!
They’ll call it bloody murder,
And hang me by the neck.
In war-time he’s a hero,
Who sends through air or sea
A bomb to blow a thousand
Into Eternity.
And so, dear gentle reader,
You see, by all the rules,
That earth’s whole population
Except ourselves are fools.
(Abner Cosens)
More Poetry from Abner Cosens:
Abner Cosens Poems based on Topics: Man, World, Money & Wealth, Countries, Nature, Cities, Madness, Fool, Heroism, Facts, Sense & Perception- Rursery Rhymes (Abner Cosens Poems)
- The Allied Forces (Abner Cosens Poems)
- The Lost Tribes (Abner Cosens Poems)
- The English Woman's Complaint (Abner Cosens Poems)
- Jim's Sacrifice (Abner Cosens Poems)
- Modern Diplomacy, Or How The War Was Started (Abner Cosens Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Man Poems, World Poems, Nature Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Money & Wealth Poems, Literature Poems, Eternity Poems, Cities Poems, Poets Poems, Fool Poems, Madness PoemsBased on Keywords: blundered, partook, manufacture, produces, bums, woodwork, heck, war-time
- The Wild Knight (Gilbert Keith Chesterton Poems)
- Mogg Megone - Part I. (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)
- Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind. In Three Cantos. - Canto I. (Matthew Prior Poems)
- Palestine; A Prize Poem, Recited In The Theatre, Oxford (Reginald Heber Poems)
- The Island: Canto IV. (Lord George Gordon Byron Poems)