EXCUSES

                     If only I’d been looking when she ran …
                     If only I’d been with another man . . .
                     If only I had thought the problem through …
                     If only I had never married you …
                     If only circumstances had allowed …
                     If only I were amply endowed . . .
                     If only it had been a warmer season …
                     If only you had had a better reason …
                     If only you’d remembered what I’d said …
                     If only there were nothing more to dread …
                      If only what she said were always clear …
                      If only all this junk would disappear …
                      If only I could be appreciative . . .
                      Then I might settle down and truly live.

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LIFE

                    How was it what’s material, mechanic
                    Evolved to what’s now living and organic?
                    There must have been a primal vital force,
                     Good Orderly Direction, as its Source
                     That we have now personified as God,
                     Who elevated us from lowly sod
                     And whom, we hope, has greater plans is mind,
                     That we’ll evolve into a higher kind
                     Of creature manifesting sapience—
                     The crowning glory of intelligence.

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