The Discretion Of A Plague

Gather 'round children and hear a ditty

How Pestilence at last learned pity

From a tender crowd of politicians

Or patience, at least, in his mission.

For once upon a warm, damp night,

On blackest horse, with skin of white

A horseman of apocalypse

Stopped off to drink or, maybe, piss.

The bar he chose was in D.C.

And Democrats were on T.V.

Engaged in a debate.

Four horsemen bring the Earth its fate.

For petty grievance, here were eight.

One proclaimed compassion

For the poor and the dirty

The next swore firm action

To defend our liberty

One expressed frustration

At injustice by race

The next claimed administration

Of competence and taste.

And on and on the candidates prattled

Until The Plague's dry bones were rattled.

By the time the horseman drained his beer

He forsook his call for now and here

As he put his work up on a shelf,

In rasping voice he told himself:

"Though Satan's fire burn eternally,

It shan't outsmoke democracy.

And though I'd come to spread corruption

I see no point in interruption."

PESTILENCE, n. Any corruption of the flesh unexplained by the neighbor's sin.