What the Romans did
Was not romantic
The Romance philology
Is not the romance of a dance
Of two across the wax and wane of moons.
A mistaken attribution of etymology.
These new dictionaries
Nets that recognise Stockholm syndrome
As their most familiar pattern of submission
Lack sense
Equating Romance with a process of conquest and invasion
Wittgenstein on this equation.
And so this is Christmas
And what have you done
Built a beautiful belfry for bats
Saw a hypnotised squirrel yesterday
Looking fat
Wondered on matter and n-dimensional data
Ignored theorised quarrels of hearsay.
There's the odd sketch over there
An equation or two
A climate of fear
But climate talks are not new.
I have hit the nail on the head
(Not less than three pails
Two taps to fix and three to strike dead
Is fifteen thousand if my maths does not fail)
Next year the quest will accelerate
Will the next earthquake be something to celebrate?
The goose and the gander
The Pope and the pander
The Pulitzer prize propaganda
They're clearly not in control of the lot.
It's hard to know where this old machina goes
Trifurcated in infinite flows
What parts are old, what parts are new
What parts over written and what came from who.
And so this is Christmas
And what have they done
If they shot the next John Lennon
Then no one heard the gun.
