POEMS
SCIENCE AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR
for
B. F.
Skinner
Feeling that it is vaguely undignified
To win somwne else's bet for him by choosing
The quiet
girl
in the corner, not refusing,
But simply not preferring the other one;
Abashed by having it known that we decide
To save the icing on the chocolate bun
Until the last, that we prefer to ride
Next to the window always; more than afraid
Of knowing that They Know what sends us screaming
Out of the movie; even shocked by the dreaming
Our friends do about us, we vainly hope
That certain predictions never can be made,
That the mind can never spin the Golden Rope
By which we feel bound, determined and betrayed.
But rather,
if
such a thing exists at all
Three nasty thingummies should hold it, tWlStmg
Strand onto endless strand, always resisting
Our own old impulse to pull the string and see
Just what would happen, or to feel the small
But tingling tug upon the line; to free
The captives, so that we might watch them crawl
Back into deeper water again. It is well
To leave such matters in their power, trusting
To the blase discretion of disgusting
Things like the Two who spin and measure, and
The Third and surely The Most Horrible,
