86'd

Considerations on his 86^th birthday, respectfully plagiarizing Thomas Hardy's lines on a similar occasion a century ago . . .

Well, World, I have kept faith with you,

Kept faith with you;

Upon the whole you've proved to be

Much as I thought it seemed

When as a child I used to lie

Upon that sinkplaat dak and scan the sky,

Never, I own, expecting, no, not I,

That life would so quickly fly by.

Then you said, and since have said,

Many times have since said,

In the exacting voice that you affect

In clouds and hills respect:

“Many have loved me foolishly,

Many with smooth obliquity,

Though some have shown contempt for me

Till slid into the furnace fire."

“You did not promise overmuch, parent; overmuch—

Merely a Nobel Prize and such!"

I would remind the world of you,

Wise warning for your debtors’ sake,

Who also should not fail to take

A poem for the strain and ache

That ages hence assign.

Notes: Sinkplaat dak: a roof of corrugated or galvanized metal, typical of the old-fashioned domestic architecture of the Great Karoo.

Thomas Hardy's original poem ,"He Never Expected Much," can be found here, and at multiple other online sites: https://www.poetry.com/poem/36379/he-never-expected-much (1926).

Saturday, November 15, 2025

Buy the Rumor, Sell the News

Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot.

― Groucho Marx

Rumor has it that God loves us.

Or at least that perhaps She might.

She, in fact, is quite uncertain,

Doing Her best to get things right.

We should never credit rumor,

Taking a chance on what it means.

It's best though to heed it sooner;

The news is seldom what it seems!

Hearsay has a thousand faces,

You can't be sure which one is true.

Me, I trust in Innuendo—

That donna sure knows what to do!

Had you placed a bet on rumor,

The world would hardly end today.

Sell short the news. You'll save a life.

Don't try to catch a falling knife!

Saturday, November 15, 2025

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

An Egyptian Baladi street dog and her puppies

“The end result of a good deed is a slap with the palms.”

"Do good and throw it into the sea."

—Egyptian sayings

No good deed, the Arabs say, goes unpunished;

If being kind, best "throw it in the sea"—

Lest some chastising angel you offend

Supposing worthy actions to commend.

Unclear to you how the good gets banished?

What's with this “slapping with the palms”?!

(It's not a kick in the teeth or call to arms.)

What, while we're at it, to consider a good deed?

Mere kindness? Common decency

That gratulates our goodie-two-shoes selves?

Self-praising might in rebound set free

A niggling fear of "motivation doubt"—

Kindness nothing to write home about.

I've been done many a good turn,

And have sought to do as done to me,

Since it's no help the good to spurn.

Set doubts aside, give alms graciously.

No matter how good you are, you're never good enough.

So screw the sneaking sense it may be bluff.

A pox on sneaking senses, that shit that thinks it's tough!

Friday, November 14, 2025

Epigraph source: 1,001 Arabic Proverbs with English Translation, ed. Brian Powell (Washington, DC: Industry Arabic, 2024).

Note also the modern Greek equivalent of the Egyptian saying "Do good and throw it into the sea": Κάνε το καλό / Και ρίχτο στο γιαλό.