Classic Poem

The Gopher remarked to the Prairie Dog,
“Though widely reputed a scary dog,
You live in a room with a Rattlesnake,
A Burrowing Owl and a Cattle Snake.
Now, Burrowing Owls are lugubrious,
And Snakes I should term insalubrious;
I wonder, by all that's get-at-able,
If truly you find them compatible.”
“Not wholly,” responded the Prairie Dog—
First looking behind him, the wary dog!
“My quarters are scarcely commodious,
The squatters you mention are odious,
But he that is prudent negotiates
With even unpleasant associates
Who might, at a pinch, overpower him,
Evict him, or maybe devour him;
And hence, with my wonted sagacity,
I satisfy all their rapacity
And hail those too palpable realists
As brothers and fellow idealists,
While justly they laud my sublimity
Of vision and great magnanimity.
It needs just a little hypocrisy
To make the world safe for democracy.”