Hannington Mumo Poems

Now that all the world-honored bloom you have,
How do you plan to run the affairs of this estate?
Whatever your thrifty or careless arrangement,
Remember that Nature gives in order to confiscate.
...

Oh, why are you so radiant, merciful sun,
And why are the birds so gay?
Do you know our romantic rounds are done,
And I now must go away?
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I do bitterly fault your restless digits, slatternly time;
Your agile dial's design I defy with mutinous rhyme.
What's the veiled intent of your lightning procession,
Against this snail-mover's beleaguered progression?
...

Traveled I to exotic places across the continent,
Dined with kings and queens and princes and princesses,
Seen foreign shores and mountains and ranges and ports;
I feel great attachment to such picturesque scenic places.
...

The world is full of the things we see
But more than these are the things unseen,
An example is the wind that sweeps rain to us
And the lust that leads to things obscene.
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The air is humid and the sun
Is a little orb peeping shyly between
The cumulus gaps, a cuckoo shrieks
And I look aside to see my shadow
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I'm not a preachy schoolmaster
Armed with various pens and a duster;
And I'm not the Almighty to dictate
About wrong and right in human state,
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For long I stayed forlorn
Wondering why so intricate is this earthly stay
Till a heavenly revelation on me began to dawn;
That this was but an ephemeral stay
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Though from a strait upbringing
And of character so reserved and shy,
None ever contested what was a verity;
Statira was a gorgeous maid.
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Maggy Magola the twilight gal
Who sold her thighs for half a dime,
Was without any true pal
And thought good morals were a crime.
...