Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Origins of Wednesday lv: Between day and evening





The senior Senator from Arizona
spoke to the Senate yesterday, 
defying the norm of orations in
that space, without an audience.

Dutiful members of the chamber
turned up on demand, for some-
thing they expected to be con-
genial, a polite concession to
a tide of condescension, under
what're delicately called, 'the
circumstances.' They got some-
thing better, and there'll be
a quiz about it, in that Fall
to be expected only next year.




                    There'll be a quiz at Annapol-
                    is, and Andover, too; and when
                    men, polishing their obelisk, 
                    proclaim their own greatness, 
                    wherever they are on land, or
                    on sea, there will be a quiz;

                    There will be a quiz for smug-
                    ness, and equally of spite; in
                    the salesman's voice, busy dy-
                    ing on the road we keep alive;

                    And it will come down to this:
                    why did he admit to no doubt, 
                    on the principle of conducting
                    republican government, openly?





























ii  Nathan Benn
    Middlebury, Vermont
    1973








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