On Going Along to Get Along

To celebrate the life we live in

with constant refusal to give in

is the job of every poet

but in the end he doesn’t know it.

“It isn’t moral to go along”

is the subject of every song.

He always has promises to keep;

self-elected shepherd for the sheep.

He has a constant consciousness of

his duty as a spokesman for love.

With so much doubt of all tradition,

constant doubt becomes a religion.

He sometimes seems to be arrogant

but better that than a sycophant.

Walt Abbott–11-20-2009