Telos

First Forster fooled around as Thomas Browne
Driving a bus up a rainbow to show
A little boy green ring maidens below
Splashing and fooling around with their gold.

Faking Browne’s noble, aureate diction,
Forster warped Wagner, adding some humor,
Having fey girls happily hollering
Up to the fey boy, There’s truth in the depths

And truth on the heights alike, replacing
Wagnerian weia-wailing—How dear
And doubtless the depths, false the high and fine—
With purely mancipiary delights.

Whenever such naughtiness can be forgiven,
Wordplay’s alleyways sprout signs pointing to heaven.
The busses still run, but the traffic’s getting light,
And the police come and tear down the signs every night.