and hearing Vladimir Putin's ringing observance that “ultimately, the selfishness and arrogance of Western states led to the current extremely dangerous state of affairs,"

Alfonso the Mouse went and said, 'twill offer dubious comfort indeed

when man unkind arrives at doom's dearth of humanity anointed door,

to console itself with the hard won knowledge that, ultimately,

"democracy and freedom" turned out to mean

voting in selfish arrogance,

over and over and over again.