Used To Be

The vainglorious migration has an inordinate end; 

it is said there’s no easy way back to where you’d 

again claim to be the same: try it and see, th’ new 

you’s changed beyond the old ways - which don’t 

recognise you anyhow, & there’s nothing to grasp 

except estranged straws - which now engender a 

plebiscite you failed playing th’ field clause, it isn’t 

nonsense you would want to live down too easy 

But pragmatism sees the horizon’s only light; it’s 

the plausible choice that you still have, and right 

or wrong - you don’t need go back to be forward 

in dealing with th’ matter - so okay, I’ll be frankly 

brief about it - & pleased to accept that my cant 

still isn’t any less than th’ humbug it used to be 

© 24 February 2016, I. D. Carswell