If profit is our only cause,
Then limit not the market.
Let them starve on foreign shores
For it guarantees our target.
If speed is used to measure skill,
Then limit not velocity,
Just beware that this might kill,
Our common sense of quality.
If it’s pedestals that make us fall,
From grace to deep depravity,
Then maybe we should ban them all,
To force the hand of gravity.
. Stupid thoughts will incubate,
. Hence the need to regulate.

© Tim Grace, 17 April 2011

To the reader: We can wrap stupidity in garlands of bright remark. The preposterous thought is easily disguised as plausible. The laws of logic can be mimicked, befuddled into submission. The accepted truth is often more convenient than it is tested. There is no shortage of dumbness on display. Mostly, as benign, it does no harm; but on occasions the fatuous need reminding of their folly.

To the poet: The art of evaluation is based upon determining the veracity of if/then relationships. This sonnet’s backbone, being about logic, is structured to parody an if/then sequence of thought. There’s a pattern to each four-line stanza. The first pair of lines establish the if/then relationship; and the last two provide a perverse conclusion. Take it as you will; but look before you leap to a conclusion.

need to regulate