Q
is for Quality. People or thingsPossess it or not. The degree of it springs
From reaching for standards.
The best you can do Is strive for the quality label—for you.
R
is for Reason, to which we appealTo bolster our causes, with fervor and zeal,
Until it says no to our gain or our pride—
Then Reason is ridiculed, damned, and denied.
S
is for Satan, who used to be fearedAnd hated by all who were properly reared;
But Satan assumes many forms, and his double,
Old Something-for-Nothing, accounts for our trouble.
T
is for Truth, which is central in life,But seldom observed in its fullness.
The strife Of living obscures it, and over it falls
The shadow of doubt—and yet ever it calls.
U
is for Us and our Union of States,Where each has the freedom to earn what he rates;
But some who contend that the rates are unequal
Would tax, seize, and squander, ignoring the sequel.
V
is for Victory, sweet to the tasteFor only a moment—the product of waste
And death and destruction. The danger of winning
Is this: that your troubles are only beginning.
W
stands for the Wisdom that springsFrom deep understanding of men and of things.
Transcending intelligence, higher than knowledge,
It can’t be transmitted, or taught in a college.
X
is the symbol of subjects obscureAnd objects unseen, with a mystic allure:
The yet-undiscovered, impending and vast,
Is greater than all we have learned in the past.
Y
is for Youth, no better or worseThan in Cicero‘s day—except for the curse
Their blundering elders, through many a year,
Have fastened upon them: the torment of fear.
Z
is for Zoo, where the monkeys look outOn you and on me as we amble about,
With a hint of contempt in their simian eyes.
And sometimes I’m stopped with this shocking surmise: That
a modern millennium well might begin,
If we let them all out, and they locked us all in!