Thomas Paine

The son a staymaker, citizen stuck fast, to Howard and Anthony,

Footed by socialism, despised by the Revolutions,Promoted as Quaker,

the oats sowed by rationalism Til the Pain, becomes Paine, and Thomas,

becomes Tom, The nomenclature bridged by historical chumminess,

The X on the door and illness, saved the founding father from the People

who like the English, and the Americans wanted him dead, his books of Rights

and Deism got him into trouble, into the kind of international infamy one connects

with Osama Bin Laden and his sort, Now in Twitterford, the good folks in the hands

of the BBC can blab about this or that, their stories and recollections having little

or naught to do with what Thomas stood forPromoting only excess of communication,

the mob mass where values are weighed by looks, and deleted by buttons.