Becalmed

Internet down, and life drags to a halt
Whimper and cry, and groan "not our fault!"
"I'm so sorry" and "We strive to delight"
What good excuses, in creeping half-light?

Pither and pother and stuttering slobber
Drooling and foolish, a momentary delusion
Titter and totter and failure's a bother
Dithering and brutish, efficiency's illusion.

Protestant ethic, an ethnic allusion
Drawn by bias and stir-fried collusion
Possible, curious: hard work's conclusion
Mothered or birthed by short days' occlusion?

Merit and blame sometimes will fail
Circumstance will out, though reason bewail
Justice and faith denied in the tale
This race not to the fast, but always the hale.

12/17/01

I think I like this version more than previous versions of the same bit of doggrel. I've re-written the last section five or six times over the last year and a half, and never been quite satisfied. I imagine tomorrow I'll look at this and be disappointed all over again. Well, that's another day.