failing our purpose

our hearts and hopes are set on what is true
no matter what the parting words might be
enough for all the magic freight at sea
to sink before it reaches our purview
so much claimed fact turns out just ballyhoo
what's in the show was not on the marquee
what you observe is more than we agree
we call the truly old the rightly new
a scandal once becomes just one more fact
to put within the record and go on
until the book is filled are we may weep
not at the pain but for the lack of tact
the measure of how far we have now gone
and just how little we have left to keep