She answered with such an answer
As Miss America might give
I can’t take the stress
Every whisker defines a country
Every eyelash a continent
And all the whispering placebos unite
To promulgate the dream of yesteryear’s snow

The winsome among the sages
The feminine lore of healing and textile
And retail politics on the Avenue of the Umbrellas
Resplendent in their variegated hues
That under normal circumspections
Would have withered shelled and derided
The romance of la cosa nostra and the ruling junta
But here all is repealed
All is maternal

Do you remember the president Nixon
His mother who was a saint
His wife who wore a cloth coat
His faithful dog who stuck by him when the going got rough
His daughter who married a president’s son
His other daughter who married that other guy
All passed awry like the thawing slush

He answered with such an answer
As a guy ready to be crazy might give
Top off the tank before hitting the highway
Note the code of the Emergency Broadcast System
Stock up on the beverages the red and the blue
Why is she so concerted about hair and nails
Rotate out the ephemeral procedures

They who are doomed to repeat our errors
Sins of the fathers
Despite our decrepit hearing our pitiable knees
But of course we can only act upon what we know
And what we know best are those knotted formulae
That have stood the test of time
That have gathered their rosebuds
And made hay while the sun shines
That seized the day so many long years ago