To claim, at a dead party, to have spotted a grackle,
\nWhen in fact you haven\u2019t of late, can do no harm.
\nYour reputation for saying things of interest
\nWill not be marred, if you hasten to other topics,
\nNor will the delicate web of human trust
\nBe ruptured by that airy fabrication.
\nLater, however, talking with toxic zest
\nOf golf, or taxes, or the rest of it
\nWhere the beaked ladle plies the chuckling ice,
\nYou may enjoy a chill of severance, hearing
\nAbove your head the shrug of unreal wings.
\nNot that the world is tiresome in itself:
\nWe know what boredom is: it is a dull
\nImpatience or a fierce velleity,
\nA champing wish, stalled by our lassitude,
\nTo make or do. In the strict sense, of course,
\nWe invent nothing, merely bearing witness
\nTo what each morning brings again to light:
\nGold crosses, cornices, astonishment….<\/p>\n