Black Beetles in Amber

To 'Colonel' Dan. Burns

They say, my lord, that you're a Warwick. Well,

The title's an absurd one, I believe:

You make no kings, you have no kings to sell,

Though really 'twere easy to conceive

You stuffing half-a-dozen up your sleeve.

No, you're no Warwick, skillful from the shell

To hatch out sovereigns. On a mare's nest, maybe,

You'd incubate a little jackass baby.

I fancy, too, that it is naught but stuff,

This "power" that you're said to be "behind

The throne." I'm sure 'twere accurate enough

To represent you simply as inclined

To push poor Markham (ailing in his mind

And body, which were never very tough)

Round in an invalid's wheeled chair. Such menial

Employment to low natures is congenial.

No, Dan, you're an impostor every way:

A human bubble, for "the earth," you know,

"Hath bubbles, as the water hath." Some day

Some careless hand will prick your film, and O,

How utterly you'll vanish! Daniel, throw

(As fallen Woolsey might to Cromwell say)

Your curst ambition to the pigs--though truly

'Twould make them greater pigs, and more unruly.