FOR BILL CRIDER

 A POEM FOR DAYLIGHT SAVINGS

Oh hail the master puppeteer,

Controller of the strings.

The altruistic engineer,

Sagaciousness he brings.

With breathtaking dexterity,

He moves us about.

From rich and famed celebrity,

To every down-and-out.

When he feels the time is right

He drives our limbs to action.

Manipulating day and night

Gives him much satisfaction.

And having no mind of our own,

We let him have his way.

As twice a year by strings alone,

He shifts the time of day.

Forward-back, year after year

Is clearly idiotic.

Yet why we do is still unclear,

We all appear robotic.

Our puppeteer is way off-track,

He makes life complicated.

Our inner clocks all out of whack,

And discombobulated.

Oh why this foolish pantomime?

What purpose this decree?

What use this faulty paradigm?

What help to you or me?

Our puppeteer has lost his charms,

We're dangling just by threads.

Our little wooden legs and arms,

Our little wooden heads!

-- Norma Pain