In Other Words/The Good Old Socialistic Days

The Good Old Socialistic Days

IN SUI SAECULI LUXURIAM

Horace: Book II, Ode 15.

Jam pauca aratro jugera regiae—”

With skyscrapers building a dozen a day,
I am anxious, I View-with-Alarm;
And I’d like to know how there’ll be room for the plow,
And what’s going to become of the farm.

Time was when the olive was w. k.,
Now myrtle and violet are in.
I urge on this nation of Rome, Conservation—
This waste is a shame and a sin.

When Romulus reigned and when Cato was king,
Conditions were never so tough;
The Morgans and such hadn’t any too much,
And the poorest had more than enough.

Return once again, O ye days that I sing,
When Labor was wearing a crown!
O life was more spacious, grab this from Horatius,
When Rome was a Socialist town.