Different men have different ways,
Different crooks have different lays,
Different girls wear different stays.
It’s just according to how you’re built
Whether you sing a dirge, or lilt,
Laugh, or cry, when the milk is spilt.
Different dogs have different yaps,
Different tarts have different chaps,
Different bees fill different caps.
The bloke who missed is a carper—hence
We find him sitting astride a fence,
Cursing like hell as a recompense.
Different hounds have different bays,
Different nags have different neighs,
Different priests have different prays.
Who’d have a world that was uniform
Timing its pulse to a damning norm?
Give me the varying calm and storm.
Different hooks have different eyes,
Different cooks make different pies,
Different stamps have different dies.
Little it matters, my friend! to you,
Though arms are clinging, or hearts are true,
Or gold be clotted around the shoe.
Different grocers use different sand—
That is the game that you understand!
Here is a genuine, good right hand.
[Illustration: ☟ hand, index finger pointing down]
Bring me a tangle of fairish dope
To widen a rhymer’s mental scope,
And I’ll write an ode to a bar of soap!
[Decoration: Black swan]