It was a beautiful summer's evening:
the sky still faintly blue, a gentle breeze
and the crickets clacking in the trees…

The times, as ever, were out of joint.
But those assembled did the best they could
and tried, on the whole, to remain good-
humoured. They saw no point
in constantly wringing their hands and weeping
over things they could do little about.
So when one of their number started to shout
and insisted on people keeping
their eyes fixed firmly on "the truth,"
they begged him to turn the volume down.
They weren't deaf or blind, they said, and they'd known
what he was telling them for years – indeed, since youth.
Speak softly, they went on, and please,
let us just bask in the last rays
of the sun, lie back and enjoy these final days
of summer, the crickets and the evening breeze.
Of course, they concluded, beauty isn’t all;
but it will soon enough be fall.

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