Bantam Roosters And Pleasure Boosters Poem by Barry Middleton

I knew a man who had too many friends,
small use they were but so he did pretend,
and drink with them at night like men who sense
that life should yield much more than its pretense.

He raised a flock of bantam hens and roosters
that seemed to him a pride of humor boosters.
The males were bright and beautiful and vain;
the useless hens ranged free and were a bane.

His wife could never seem to understand
the use of bantams nesting in the sand.
They never used the nests that were prepared,
though bated with a sacred egg and prayered.

She never understood the friends at all.
or why he did not come to supper's call.
She could not see the use of bantam roosters,
and did not feel the need for pleasure boosters.