re: Kennedy retiring

One of my more liberal friends posted this today in response to the GOP's opportunity to set the direction of the SCT, potentially for decades. Personally, I think she is overstating it but the melt is still fun.

Funeral Blues
--W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

quote:

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He was 69 five days ago.

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And he appears to be in good health and a sharp mind. How many times does he write his own separate opinions on an issue, even when he sides with the majority? And where he is not on the majority side, he often writes the dissent.