certain maxims of archy -- Don Marquis

(Poem #122) certain maxims of archy many a man spanks his children for things his own father should have spanked out of him i once heard the survivors of a colony of ants that had been partially obliterated by a cow s foot seriously debating the intention of the gods towards their civilization if you get gloomy just take an hour off and sit and think how much better this world is than hell of course it won t cheer you up much if you expect to go there that stern and rockbound coast felt like an amateur when it saw how grim the puritans that landed on it were insects have their own point of view about civilization a man thinks he amounts to a great deal but to a flea or a mosquito a human being is merely something good to eat just as soon as the uplifters get a country reformed it slips into a nose dive if monkey glands did restore your youth what would you do with it question mark just what you did before interrogation point every cloud has its silver lining but it is sometimes a little difficult to get it to the mint prohibition makes you want to cry into your beer and denies you the beer to cry into the honey bee is sad and cross and wicked as a weasel and when she perches on you boss she leaves a little measle i do not see why men should be so proud insects have the more ancient lineage according to the scientists insects were insects when man was only a burbling whatisit lots of people can make their own whisky but can t drink it i heard a couple of fleas talking the other day says one come to lunch with me i can lead you to a pedigreed dog says the other one i do not care what a dog s pedigree may be safety first is my motto what i want to know is whether he has got a muzzle on millionaires and bums taste about alike to me boss the other day i heard an ant conversing with a flea small talk i said disgustedly and went away from there an optimist is a guy that has never had much experience the servant problem wouldn t hurt the u s a if it could settle its public servant problem there is always something to be thankful for you would not think that a cockroach had much ground for optimism but as the fishing season opens up i grow more and more cheerful at the thought that nobody ever got the notion of using cockroaches for bait -- Don Marquis

If you came in late, do look up the previous two 'archy and mehitabel'
poems, poem #36 and poem #76, before returning to this one.

Today's poem is somewhat different in style - it's a series of disconnected
verses, so it lacks some of the helter-skelter streaming effect. The maxims
do share the other characteristics of Marquis's work, though, being both
witty and thought-provoking (and ofttimes just plain funny). I also like the
way he hasn't descended into a series of thinly veiled platitudes - I
usually find the archy and mehitabel poems refreshing, and todays is no
exception.

m.