Someone is dead. Even the trees know it, those poor old dancers who come on lewdly, all pea-green scarfs and spine pole.
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What would you have me do? Search out some powerful patronage, and be Like crawling ivy clinging to a tree? No thank you. Dedicate, like all the others, Verses to plutocrats, while caution smothers Whatever might offend my lord and master? No thank you. Kneel until my knee-caps fester, Bend my back until I crack my spine, And scratch another’s back if he’ll scratch mine? No thank you. Dining out to curry favour, Meeting the influential till I slaver, Suiting my style to what the critics want With slavish copy of the latest can’t? No thanks! Ready to jump through any hoop To be the great man of a little group? Be blown off course, with madrigals for sails, By the old women sighing through their veils? Labouring to write a line of such good breeding Its only fault is that it’s not worth reading? To ingratiate myself, abject with fear, And fawn and flatter to avoid a sneer? No thanks, no thanks, no thanks! But just to sing, Dream, laugh, and take my tilt of wing, To cock a snook whenever I shall choose, To fight for yes and no, come win or lose, To travel without thought of fame or fortune Wherever I care to go to under the moon! Never to write a line that hasn’t come Directly from my heart: and so, with some Modesty, to tell myself: My boy, Be satisfied with a flower, a fruit, the joy Of a single leaf, so long as it was grown In your own garden. Then, if success is won By any chance, you have nothing to render to A hollow Caesar: the merit belongs to you. In short, I won’t be a parasite; I’ll be My own intention, stand alone and free, And suit my voice to what my own eyes see!
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Oh see, now that pisses me off. First of all, we have over 400 plaintiffs here, and, let's be honset, we all know there are more out there. They may not be the most sophistcated people but they do know how to divide and 20 million dollars isn't shit when you split it between them. Second of all, these people don't dream about being rich. They dream about being able to let their kids swim in a pool without worrying that they'll have to have a historectomy by the age of 20, like Rosa Fields, a client of ours. Or have their spine deteriorate, like Stan Bloom, another client of ours. So before you come back here with another lame-ass offer, I want you to think real hard about what your spine is worth Mr. Walker. Or how much you'd expect somebody to pay you for your uteris Ms. Sanchez. Then you take out your calculator, and you multiply that number by a hundred. Anything less than that is a waste of our time. By the way, we had that water brought in special for you folks. Came from a well in Hinkley.
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... good and evil appear to be joined in every culture at the spine.
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The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine.
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He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.
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The sky was dark, the moon was high We were alone, just her and I Her hair so soft, her eyes so blue I knew just what she wanted to do.
I didn't know how, but I tried my best, I placed my hand upon her breast Her skin so soft, her hair so fine, I kept my fingers running down her spine
My pounding head, my beating heart She slowly spread her legs apart The white stuff came, it's over now... My first experience, Milking a cow
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He was so crooked, you could have used his spine for a safety-pin.
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