The New Morality

Let it be said, there is no virtue now

In living as our grandsires did of yore,

In ignorance and want.  There is no need

To rate our worth upon an acre and a cow.

We have to eke a livelihood no more

From sweat and toil. No longer pay we heed

To what is simple and naive.  Know-how

Is now the gospel, cunning holds the floor,

On expertise and cleverness we feed.

Heart is an organ we can supersede,

There is no place for inefficient doubts,

There is no sin except of carelessness:

Let us be clinical, amoral, dress

Our modest nudity in scarlet clouds.

 

Weekly Times   25.3.60