Those Brilliant Greeks

(to a moderate clapping rhythm: 4/4 time)

Moderation, that’s the key.
Greeks come by it, naturally.

Germans, Congolese, Croats, Celts—
Mo-der-a-tion ain’t modest for anyone else.

In the Klan I come from, no one knows
What “equilibrium” is, what the Greeks propose:

“A little of this, a little of that—nothing extreme,
that’s where it’s at!”

So back-and-forth we thrash and howl,
like the Bankrupt Greeks, by tooth and jowel

we love, then hate, then fight, then kiss
then spend, then save, then hit, then miss.

Moderation, that’s the key,
stings like compromise, at least for me.

-par
3/2012