When If Won’t Do
If if won’t do in the 21st century,
To say that a state of affairs must be;
In the event this occurs, or that that is the case,
Should it be that, when occasion requires
The consultation of the jottings of lawyers
Upon the occurrence of perusal by others
Lately come to the locus in quo
Fresh from the functions of living reality
Faced with the form of legal verbosity
Where the writer reads less like Kipling, and more like his judge––
In the event that any of the aforesaid conditions obtain,
The nation is apt to muse
If the state can’t speak to us in our own tongue, pray
Why should we care what it has to say?