How I'd love to enter in your mind,
And get your motives straight,
Hieronymus Bosch, the mystery-man,
Whose pictures we contemplate!
Some think he painted the pangs of Hell
To warn folk against sin,
To show the dreadful consequences
If we let the Devil in.
They think he was good and holy;
They think that, among his goals,
Was the desire to educate
Evil men and save their souls.
Others think, and I'm in tune with this,
That he got a terrific kick
Out of painting the wildly wierd,
Scenes that were lewd and sick.
What better way to indulge oneself
In the gruesome and obscene
Than to paint as a dreadful warning,
A sign to the unclean?
'I show you these sights for your own good'.....
I can hear him saying it now!
'This is your future existence
With the Devil in Hell, I vow!' !
He'd have licked his lips as he said it,
A passionate light in his eyes,
And the peasants to whom he was speaking
Would have thought him wondrous wise.
Today he'd have turned to pornography;
He'd have been on the internet
Swapping repulsive photographs
With other sick minds, I bet.
But I really cannot enter
In a fifteenth century mind,
So do forgive me, Heironymus,
If I'm being a bit unkind.
*
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But I really cannot enter
In a fifteenth century mind,
So do forgive me, Heironymus,
If I'm being a bit unkind.
*
----------------------------------------------------
DOMESTIC DILEMMA!
Have you ever noticed, when a visitor's expected,
Your normally neat and tidy home suddenly looks neglected?
There! Around the handles! Surely that's a smudge!
And over there I see a stain that nothing's going to budge!
Why didn't I buy new cushions? Why didn't I clear the drawers?
Why didn't I throw out that old mat and polish all the floors?
Those plain white cups and saucers suddenly look too plain.
Oh no! Behind the standard lamp! Not another stain!
It seems I'm normally half-blind, deluding myself as well.
I thought my home was Heaven! Now I find that it's just Hell!
I'm trying to shrug my shoulders and pretend that it's all right.
'They must take me as they find me. I will not get uptight!
I won't be judged by my stupid house, but by my cheerful ways.
In any case they're only here for a certain number of days.
And once they're gone I can return to my previous attitude.'
Oh no! I'd almost forgotten! I've got to give them FOOD!
*
Have you ever noticed, when a visitor's expected,
Your normally neat and tidy home suddenly looks neglected?
There! Around the handles! Surely that's a smudge!
And over there I see a stain that nothing's going to budge!
Why didn't I buy new cushions? Why didn't I clear the drawers?
Why didn't I throw out that old mat and polish all the floors?
Those plain white cups and saucers suddenly look too plain.
Oh no! Behind the standard lamp! Not another stain!
It seems I'm normally half-blind, deluding myself as well.
I thought my home was Heaven! Now I find that it's just Hell!
I'm trying to shrug my shoulders and pretend that it's all right.
'They must take me as they find me. I will not get uptight!
I won't be judged by my stupid house, but by my cheerful ways.
In any case they're only here for a certain number of days.
And once they're gone I can return to my previous attitude.'
Oh no! I'd almost forgotten! I've got to give them FOOD!
*
