I’ve read your epigrams and little’s changed,
For modern people do the same old things.
We’re ancient Romans slightly rearranged,
With just as many orgies, fights and flings.
You’d recognize the liars and cheats and whores.
The actors change but still the same old play,
Although those goings on behind back doors
Would these days be considered somewhat gay.
Your satire sure has teeth and tends to bite.
You write of scandals, crime, and dirty dealings,
But poets now are placid and polite;
We wouldn’t wish to hurt somebody’s feelings.
We think ourselves much more sophisticated
Than those you wrote about with style and wit.
Such works would now be likely confiscated,
For poets like yourself, these days don’t fit.
No — writing such as yours would wound and shock,
And you, the PC crowd would reprehend.
It’s not acceptable to scorn and mock;
Nobody dares to upset or offend.
— D.N. O’Brien
dnobrienpoetry 