IMAGINARY GARDEN
supplied the illustration
IN AMBER
We tend to think of them as still, for that is how we see them.
They are caught by their technology and nothing can ever free them.
Their smiles are fixed, their limbs are stiff, their whole demeanour static,
Their very stillness meaningful and grave and quite dramatic.
Like flies preserved in amber they are captured and held fast
By the process of a camera that stultifies the past.
Some famous folk were captured by that clever moving reel,
But my ancestors merely gaze and do not seem to feel.
But, just before the photographer exhorted them to freeze,
Did they giggle a little bit; did they joke and tease?
'Your hair looks like a birds-nest, Maude!' 'Ivy! Don't make me laugh!'
'Behave yourselves! If we play-up we won't get a photograph!'
Victorian ladies and gentlemen were, in many ways, like us,
Though there were certain subjects the well-bred did not discuss!
Yet we've preserved their solemnity, set in amber, for all time.
We misjudge those captured images.........it almost seems a crime.
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FUNNY MONEY
Fistfuls of dollars, hardly worth a cent!
Useless paper money, borrowed and then lent!
Notes that are crumpled, coins that are rusty,
Nothing that's reliable, dependable and trusty.
You can't trust a Banker in his well-cut suit;
Useless paper money, borrowed and then lent!
Notes that are crumpled, coins that are rusty,
Nothing that's reliable, dependable and trusty.
You can't trust a Banker in his well-cut suit;
*
Make no mistake, friend, he doesn't give a hoot
Our savings are his piggy-bank ; he takes us for a ride.
Our savings are his piggy-bank ; he takes us for a ride.
Nemesis should land on him and take away his pride.
Each banker's a magician, turning money into dust!
Your money, my money! We'll all go bust!
Each banker's a magician, turning money into dust!
Your money, my money! We'll all go bust!
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