To His Well-Meaning Friend

Had we but oil enough and gas, All welfare bill would easily pass, And we’d be spending hard, I bet, Without incurring any debt. You, on the Moon, would keep your bees And tend to Martian refugees; And I would sleep all day, in mirth, Upon the lap of Mother Earth. And I would send such cash to you As to convert a die-hard Jew. And I would pay an arm and a leg To have my raincoat hung on a peg. And to unpeg it, as it goes, I’d pay, most gladly, through the nose. But in my yard, each morn, I see No oil or gas in front of me. No one sends manna from the skies; Not even Salomon the Wise. Before you give, you first must have: There are no bulls where cows don’t calve. It’s good to have a kingly heart, But spendthrift kingdoms fall apart. Therefore, as we cannot grow rich By drilling ground or digging a ditch, We’d better find another way To safely make ends meet today. Let us make haste and use our strength, For only then shall we, at length, Reboot our brains, by lies undone, And set them free, and make them run.