or

O Captain! What Happened?!

 

Gazing out upon his realm
He shed a tear of clemency
The ship beneath his stately helm
Was found’ring in
Disparity

Great Lord! went up the plaintive wail
Take pity ‘pon the likes of we!
The healing arts are up for sale,
And we are gripped in
Penury!

The doctors care for naught but gold,
Ignoring our extremity!
Apothecaries have turned cold
Their potions priced
Excessively!

The leech is now a dozen pence
That used to cost ha’penny!
And terminal have grown the rents
On beds at the
Infirmary!

Will not you raise your mighty hand
And with keen sword of just decree
Strike down that avaricious band
And end the reign of
Banditry?

His eyes ignite in righteous fire
His face a mask of empathy
The time of greed will now expire!
You must leave everything
To me!

My subjects need not cringe and bow
For leech and newt and remedy
Nor sell the family milking cow
To pay for plastic
Surgery

The druggists must be brought to heel!
The doctors bridled ruthlessly!
The moneybags my wrath must feel,
And hence foreswear cruel
Usury!

The royal court was roused to act
Advisors pledged on bended knee
The public’s health they made their pact
From greed to set the
People free.

For forty days and forty nights
The quills did scribble fev’rishly
Defying untrod legal heights
To please their sovereign
Majesty

In hoary halls of Parliament
Opponents begged to disagree
Though few’d abide their rude lament
Or countenance such
Villainy

Banks of actuaries spoke
With tables to eternity
And champions of common folk
Demanded blanket
Equity

The counselors had scarce begun
Their obfuscations lawyerly
When special interests joined the fun
A legislative
Jamboree!

The heralds sat on tenterhooks
Predicting easy victory
Said they, Tomorrow’s history books
Will hail the king’s
Sagacity!

Upon a morning bright and fair
An end was made to industry
Anticipation filled the air
The nation waited
Breathlessly

The king addressed the kingdom then
Said he, Good shepherd must I be
and hereby sign, with flowing pen,
This bill to law from
Sea to sea

It was a potent tome, indeed
Encyclopedic, A to Z
Too much, it was, for Man to read
But not too much for
Policy

Within this mammoth document
Resides the answer to your plea
Intoned the conqu’ring President
These pages hold
Security!

Alas, the magic manuscript
Was not as it appeared to be
Slow but sure, the scales were tipped
And rose a great
Disharmony

Among the trusting populace
Suspicion wakened gradually
The parchment fair upon its face
Mandated false
Economy!

Your scheme to tame rampaging costs
Somewhere miscarried grievously!
Our old protections we have lost
New ones compare
Unfavr’ably!

Invoices once paid painfully
Now calculate in agony!
For some, private indemnity
Cannot be had for
Any fee!

Familiar physics, friends of sorts
Would treat us now illegally,
And by way of last resorts
Have only we
Compliancy !

Insult compounding injury
Political efficacy
Allows a glad minority
Exemption with
Impunity!

Despite your smiling guarantee
The future looks like poverty!
O what a brazen treachery
To perpetrate this
Calumny!

The cries were lost upon the king
Who faced the nation tranquilly
I guess I should have read the thing
But pardon your
Effrontery

Among my ministers, it’s true
Are some who disappointed me
They’re not a very clever crew
Deserving of
Antipathy

Take them! Strip them! Bind them fast
Upon your vengeful pillory!
But first look in the mirrored glass
Confront your real
Enemy

You fancied hope, demanded change
And I complied abundantly
So now I find it passing strange
To hear you whining
Bitterly

This plight I long ago defined
In stated ideology
If gentle hand you had in mind
You should have checked my
Pedigree

I do not nurture freedom’s seed
Nor well abide democracy
A king I am in word and deed
Raised up by your
Complacency

It may be true you were misled
My rule may spell catastrophe
But if you must have someone’s head
Remember who
Elected me