Sonnet #398

 Life under the bad regime contends

with all the normal things, the bills

the many letters in the post, the still

mornings when everyone sleeps, it ends

in fits and bursts where tiny lizards

chew upon the fabric of the world

a little bite here, a bite there, and girl,

don't you know it's coming, you've heard

the boys may sign their lives away

in wars that only ever made a few dimes

for a few dukes who have plenty, but say

the young men are gone, say hard times

and the lizard men are going to offer girls a deal

Oh, just smell it in the air, that fetid sign, a steal