An Altercation Over Ale

Of crackers & of salty cheese,

And of an old sawdusty floor,

And memories of colloquies

To go to Old McSorley’s for,

And chatter over mugs of ale,

A hubbub all amid the clink

Of glasses as we used to hail

Each other for another drink.

Yet I remember just one chat

In Old McSorley’s with a guy,

He, going by the name of Nat

Gave this rejoinder in reply.

That memory for many years

Of all the talks which I recall,

Just one of many reappears—

Would be important after all.

To argue over wrong and right,

As well as over good and bad;

For any shade of black & white

The gray of argument we had.

Of answers as he had run out,

He ended what he said to me;

Had nothing left to talk about

Yet capped it with profundity. 

To its conclusion he did bring

The altercation which we had: 

Man, everything is everything!

For being neither good or bad;

That after all those years now I

See how it is one nation’s gone,

So it’s high time to wonder why

Nat’s word is what I ponder on.