As we watch today's political nastiness, we should remember there is a better political archetype. There is the Cincinnatus figure who serves out of duty when he'd rather be doing something else. In the legendary case of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (who died ca. 438 B.C.) that something else was farming which he twice abandoned out of duty to serve. Can we not find such persons today to serve? Perhaps wanting a political office should in itself be disqualifying. Perhaps at Judgment Day all good politicians will speak as I imagine Cincinnatus speaking at his Judgment Day in this sonnet I have written:
Cincinnatus' Final Sonnet
No
man alive’s too good to work the land
To
feed and clothe himself. A man is not
Entitled
to be kept. (Each such demand
Collapses
on itself. Each man who’s got
Such
right gives it to others so he goes
In
circles on himself--no substance in
Such
foolishness.) Thus when the Romans chose
Me
as commander charging me to win
The
battle with the Aequi, I agreed.
The
whole included me. The victory done,
I
went back to the farm--no crown to cede
Where
none could be. Though now a shade, I
shun
Conceit
no less. Still not above a plow,
Had
I land here I would be farming now.
© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016
Another lovely sonnet, Hal. I think lawyers, being obliged to master arguments, have a particular facility for sonnets, but seldom do much with them because their usual practice is so much more lucrative. Your work demonstrates the power of the applied skillset.
ReplyDeleteFrank C. McClanahan, III
Thank you Frank. Now that I'm winding down for the summer I hope we can get coffee sometime.
ReplyDelete