POETRY
TO A TAXPAYER • (After Robert Burns.) Knee breekit, gowfin' earl, sae clever, Wi' income earned by stout endeavour, An' last year's car whilk threatens ever To gang agley.
Dell turns the screw an' maks ye shiver, But ye maun pay Each throttlin' Budget's toll increases, To prove the Departmental thesis That men arc sheep wi' gowden fleeces That need the shears, An' gin the yield be short o' pieces They'll tak' your ears I Silk shankit lass, cork-tippit brither, Strenuous sire, resourceful mither, The slope we're climbin a' thegither, Is greased wi' doles : The mair ye strive the mair ye slither, An' siller rolls.
The powers that be hae promised fairly, That by retrenchments needed sairly,
We'd haunch an' haggis cat fu' squarely,
Wi' groats to scatter.
Fulfilment's feast, spread unco sparely,
Is oats an water.
Still arc we blest compared wi' many, Wi' freedom's milk, an' friendship's honey : Sae lang's we cheer a drouthy crony Wi' barley bree, Or tramp the heath wi' lassies bonny, We'll monarchs be !
R. H. M.u.cotat.
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