Bagpipe Music at the University

 

–after Louis MacNeice

 

It’s no go the ferris wheel, it’s no go the funnies,

All we want is a counting house and good, old fashioned money.

No one has a proper shirt, our shoes get lost while running,

The preacher tells us how to live, but he doesn’t have the cunning. 

Brother Georgie threw the dice, sang to the risen moon,

He killed a snake while reading Kant, but never left his room.

Stood for sheriff, stood for pope, had plans for life at fifty;

Did an old man’s work for nothing, but always knew his Trotsky.

 

It’s no go the voodoo man, it’s no go the sphinx,

All we need’s a figure eight and another round of drinks.