381 Poem by RIC BASTASA

i

Many kiss the hand
they wish cut off

ii

we despise the pleasure of pleasing people
whom we despise

iii

The lips are smiling,
but is the heart?

iv

A hypocrite is the kind of politician
who would cut down a redwood tree,
then mount the stump
and make a speech
for conservation

v

The value of an idea
has nothing to do
with the success
of the man
who expresses it.

vi

It is with pious fraud
as with a bad action;
it begets
a calamitous necessity
of going on.

vii

Every man alone is sincere;
at the entrance of a second person
hypocrisy begins.

viii

The wolf was sick,
he vowed a monk to be-
But when he got well,
a wolf once more was he.

ix

It is a trick among
the dishonest to offer
sacrifices that are not needed,
or not possible,
to avoid making

x

For neither man
nor angel can discern hypocrisy,
the only evil
that walks invisible.
those that are required.