The Highborn Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

The highborn woman and her sons.

An old woman has died she was famous for having no opinion
about anything; talking about "families" soft as flannel patting
a child's stately bum.
One of her sons has taken her place at the top of the table.
A rigid man with a complaining mien has to use an intermediate
to get his rather trite opinions across.
His mistress, once a reviled woman who came before and after
his wife, who tragically died, but the public forgives her
thanks to sycophantic newspapers views are companion sits
at the top table.
The new enemy in this idyllic world is his youngest son's wife
a hurricane from America, detested by the public for stealing
this charming but intellectually limited man, looking for a sign
of distress, and actually are encouraging, a marital breakup.
The people at large and the papers they read do not understand
how obscene they are; as the ship of fools sails on and on.