Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Ephemera

Once upon a time, in the antique land of Egypt,
There lived a filial, kind, and besotted man,
By the name of Dr. Muhammad Magdi Morgaan.
Writhing with torment and despondency,
Our poor Dr. Morgaan weathered crippling bouts of jealousy.
He could nary stand to let a lone week pass,
Without heaping praise and blessings upon his most favored lass.
His beloved was not a bewitching or playful damsel, you see,
Nay, nothing less than the elephantine Egyptian presidency.

One dark Khamaseeny Wednesday,
Dr. Morgaan penned a huffy and indignant piece of poesy.
But what had ruffled our tender Doctor so?
It seems as if a few judges had the temerity,
To demand their long-pilfered autonomy.
Well, an affront this grave just could not stand,
So our loyal doctor set to brewing his noxious brand.

He began with soothing words of commiseration,
For the Herculean burdens borne by a hero-president on behalf of an ingrate nation.
Thousands of tons of bread, housing, and clothing do they ravenously consume,
With nary a nod of thanks to the chronically pained father-president overcast with gloom.
Behold, Dr. Morgaan's profound and recondite theory,
Of the proper terms of communion between the president and the citizenry.

After peppering his paean thus with a scold here and a supplication there,
Our determined doctor plunges with gusto into his merciless tear.
Beware the "enemies of the homeland" and "inciters of anarchy," says he,
Those dastardly magistrates and their dastardly liberty.
Why should upstanding professionals speak out and demand self-rule?
How could they feed their tender charges such baleful gruel?
Hark! Justices should pore over weighty tomes of code and law,
And divest themselves once and for all of rotten notions better left stuck in the craw.

Oh, dear readers, how edified, chastened, and relieved am I,
That the pure Dr. Morgaan towers over all those knaves who would ferret and pry.
Momentous matters of national unity and security,
Trump all trivial, narrow concerns of professorial or judicial autonomy.
And so our valiant Pandarus perpetually stands vigil,
Crushing in the bud any emergent sybils.