Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 9, No. 5. May 7, 1946
The Old Piano
The Old Piano
Tinkle along, you old piano,
Moving mechanism.
Sugar coating for the, suckers,
Diluted pleasure,
Rippling succulence,
Soft mush,
Sentimental slush.
Don't stop, for if you do
The world will pick you up
Like a magnetic crane,
Swing you around and dump
You down, with a hell of a bump
On the hard rock of reality.
Tinkle along, you old piano,
Saccharine pills
For the gutless crew
Who sail a doomed ship
To a relentless reef
That will rip the rotten hulk apart.
Stand on the shore
And spit at time
(If you have time).
Moisten your lips and kiss her
And laugh and sing,
But don't grovel for mercy,
There is none;
Mercy is a hollow mockery,
There is none.
Tinkle along, you old piano,
You are riddled with holes
And the dust of time
Is not asleep.
But ever creeping
Encroaching
And will gather you up And sweep you into durkness.
So love in the park
Love in the dark
Kiss and sing
My sweeting
For the piano will stop.
—Searos.