Hodge Podge

by Anne Durrum Robinson

Race of little men - race of big men
Living for diamonds - living for bread
Butchers or bakers or history makers,
Saying the future or what has been said.
Life could be fun if you knew you'd be fed.
YOUTH JUMPING OVER THE FENCE LIKE SHEEP,
PUTTING ITS MINDS AND SOULS TO SLEEP
(Hush my little one;Rock-a-bye, Intellect.Sleep...)
Cramming the teens into cubby-hold college.
Planning the twenties to fit in a square.
Dusting the shelves for our poor, senile thirties.
How can the forties lead anywhere?
RUN, LITTLE SHEEPIE.
JUMP, LITTLE SHEEPIE.
Play with security(Safer than toys).
Ambition's a goblin.
Adventure's a bogey-man!
Wide awake thoughts are for bad little boys!
RUN, SHEEP, RUN.
And who ever balked at paying the piper?
Who minds a few pennies when the music's so gay?
Banks and debts and saving your money
...Age and hunger and rainy day.
Who cares a fig for squandered sunshine?
A bargain's a bargain, like it or not.
But we'll hate the Piper the rest of our lives
For charging for something we never got...