If  and when an argument wins

During days of assurance,

Consider the circumstance

A miracle beyond recompense.

 

An argument in cocksure times

Is a poor India rubber ball

That, however hurled with laser mind

Returns frayed from a bull-dog wall.

 

Our fortified walls of affluent day

Are more receptive to a touch of paint,

If that paint have a branded name,

Next to the image of some successful saint.

 

When homes are comfort-rich,

And money more numerous than sense,

Argument is such a wasteful thing,

A failed man’s dull pretense.

 

Imagine being a Socrates

Or a Buddha in our successful times;

Both might well in the slammer be,

Counting their philosophical dimes.

 

What should the end of a good life be?–

Life that shines like a popular brand;

Why engage in argument

When the market be close at hand?

---