Or as a field of wheat, gently waving
In the house of one, in the house of all;
And Paul said, ‘Parents, never drive your lambs
To resentment, but correct and guide them as He would.’
So the hand that guides is the hand that cherishes,
And the hand that cherishes is the hand that leads.
But the bruised reed in due course snapped,
The smouldering wick went out at last,
And one of his little ones, the despised little ones,
Strayed - and wondered upon the Mount of Olives.
10. 'Waiter, dear?'
By the contentment on the face of the well-fed infant,
By the death of the empathic and the birth of the nonchalant,
By the one night stand and the eclipse of the gallant,
We salute the advent
Of the stuffed adolescent.
By pandering to the impulses that make baby smile,
By always being there lest our absence rile,
By peace at any price to subdue the volatile,
We hasten the senile
In the bored juvenile.
By the baby on pot, amiable at thirty,
By our feet of clay that walk the cherty,
By consumptively courting the salesmanly flirty,
We inure the shirty
To our extended puberty.