Be Well Assured

By William P. Meyers

"Yet be well assured
You put sharp weapons in a madman's hands."*
There is no sword as sharp
As an accounting book.

Oh, I have been to Rome and back
And walked around five Meccas.
Be well assured:
Accountants rule the world
Quietly bossing about kings and ministers
Factorums and Popes,
Generals and Internet wonder boys.

Debits and credits are hurled about
Maiming some and mending some
Digging mass graves and selling
Little tiny plots of land for bones.

A Madman's hands—
And what has hands and is not mad?

Mad about fashion or religion,
Mad about status or money,
Mad about coupons or taxes,
Mad with jealousy or envy,
Mad with fear or hope.

Examine your hands,
Your madman's hands:
Did you pay for the bullets?
Did you forge the swords?
Did you pay for the bombers?
Did you pay your U.S. taxes?

Did you buy Call of Duty
For a child or for yourself?

Do you see your hands,
Your madman's hands,
As clean,
As dirty,
As bloody,
Or like my hands
Just stained with ink
From keeping accounts.

*Shakespeare's 2 Henry VI, Act III, Sc. I, lines 346-347

Copyright 2014 by William P. Meyers, all rights reserved