False Economy

Time, that gives and takes our fame and fate

and puts say, Shakespeare's features on a plate

or a Persian poet's name on a Tandoori

can cast aside all we commemorate

and make Lot 86 or Lot 14

even out of Cardinal and Queen

and bring the holy and the high and mighty

to the falling gavel, or the guillotine.

Tony Harrison • The Blasphemers' Banquet