In the Soup A Votive for Saint Subsidy Once upon a group The leader or leaders Decided their charges Would be better off With a newly Concocted soup And so they took From their dues
(Taxes) And then conspired To figure out How to make The ‘new and
(obviously) Improved’ Sometimes delicious And the group so enjoyed Sometimes it was sour And wasted Those misspent dues But even if The soup was good It cost too much to make So to keep Everyone happy
The leaders kept Claiming more dues From the group And lavished same On the soup-makers And called it subsidy It dimly dawned On every-day folks They were consumer pawns Paying the extra freight Once in the stores And quietly twice From their dues The new soup Was an instant Hit An entitlement True cost was ignored The bargain was no Blithe bargain The spooning party Seemed never to stop Pretty soon they Began to venerate This entitlement By canonizing Saint Subsidy And created special votives (lobbyists) To plead for and
Ensure Continued blessing Would be bestowed By this revered patron Who gained greater And greater popularity The soup was made in Ever larger batches By fewer and fewer Select members
(friends and families of the leaders) Pocketing as profit – The subsidy Forbid that they would Forgo the handout And make ends meet Only from the sales of the soup
(just as we used to scour out the bowl sopping up the last tidbits of bread) So they kept scouring the group (Us)? The blessing of Saint Subsidy In full measure Became untouchable Vive Votive!