Adjutant Stork As adjutant stork of military bearing, His posture left others staring, He would strut, not walk He would squawk, not talk But he wore a mask because he was caring.
Lesser creatures, not nearly as imposing Who are given to preening and posing Thought a mask wasn’t smart As if weak of heart Not knowing it was others they were bruising.
They chirped liberty lets them refuse a mask. “If I hurt myself, why should you ask?” Then squawked the Stork In a stern retort, “As you hurt others you’re taken to task.”
“Else, follow Pascal and stay at home, Resist temptations to meet and roam. If you resist allures And stay indoors You won’t need to track that genome.”
So at the sight of this great masked bird They were first shaken, then they were stirred Perhaps they were wrong In assuming all along That thinking about others is absurd.
Dipankar Gupta is a sociologist. He is the author of, among other titles, Q.E.D.: India Tests Social Theory and Checkpoint Sociology: A Cultural Reading of Policies and Politics
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