story comes to bump

so much is hidden in the open tale

it seems a poor way to announce just how

the sweat that came to drip from each bent brow

was owed to those who had been paid to fail

not merely as a matter of travail

and sorrow in the teeth of storm and gale

but in achievement of a foolish vow

escaping from the past into the now

our only task it seems to raise the sail

our sole approach to wisdom's a mistake

or so it seems when we are to advise

those who in urgent time to our words turn

expecting us to tell the real from fake

extract the truth from the great mass of lies

and leave the monsters in the mire to burn