Conservative Liberal Hawkish Humanitarians
(From The Triumph of Strife: an homage to Dante Alighieri and Percy Shelley)

We've done again the thing we swore we'd not
The lesson never learned exacts its price
Tuition paid for mucking up the plot

Mistaking playing cards for shooting dice
A green desire to get into the game
No matter that the stakes are fire not ice

A fleeting chance to grasp at idle fame
Which molts to notoriety unclean
When shedding flesh from off the bony frame

The nice kid from the neighborhood turns mean
When armed and trained to shoot ingratitude
The vilest weed that chokes the garden scene

The conquered, looted, ravaged multitude
Persistently reject our rectitude

We only want to cure them of their wrong
We only plan to take the things we need
We do not wish to stay too late or long

Unless we cannot plant in them our seed
Or find a way to mask our appetite
Like Walruses and Carpenters we feed

On oysters while acknowledging their plight
We hold our handkerchiefs before our eyes
So that no one can see the ugly sight

Or count the oysters who believed our lies
The Walrus ate the most but empathized
And with his handkerchief his tears he dries

So too have our brave leaders sanitized
A thieving see-food orgy bowdlerized