Twiddling Thumbs

There wasn’t real incentive to do anything; it more 

or less meant nothing was considered best as the 

ideal operant, so we did snugger-all except worry, 

and even that seemed a waste of energy; but still, 

the bubble grew smugly, - like a rancorous idea’s 

cancerous disincentive to be anything less a pest 

and succeed - although it’s ugly truth sits outside 

th’ frames o’ reference we’re used to: whose idea 

it was couldn’t answer questions in lieu of sanity, 

or reason, even if you put it to the test - so we let 

it be to stew away for whatever twiddling thumbs 

are good at; and there was th’ key - we are going 

to be better entertained now a free-reign precept 

became an axiom, and, for the record, made that 

capital gain we disdained as a nonevent calamity 

into an epitome of The Game we wanted to see 

© 9 May 2018, I. D. Carswell