Someone who is not on this board asked me if I would post this on VFTT. I said sure, why not. This board could use a little poetry to get us through our days.
John
The writer's editorial comment first as to why the poem came to be:
Even as time passes I am still appalled by the bureaucratic arrogance of the bridge removal. This point was driven home for me again this past Saturday. Two gentlemen, who said they had been hiking here since before there was a "Lincoln Woods" fancy parking lot and all, didn't know the bridge had been removed. It seems no amount of redundant signage can wipe-out the memory of this bridge. With these thoughts weighing somewhat heavily on me, I penned the following doggerel.
Molly’s Folly
(with apologies to Robert Frost)
Whose woods these are she thinks she knows
Because she wears the Chief Ranger’s clothes
The White Mountain Forest is her domain
It is she who gets to say what goes (or stays)
Like a queen at the height of her reign
Her obsession is to widen her fame
She wants to make a mark, a legacy
To impress her bosses in Washington DC
Thus, she’ll interpret Wilderness Policy
With a decision resulting in a travesty
It began said she, in a disingenuous way,
That while she was hiking up the river one day
She was Shocked! Shocked, to see
A bridge crossing HER East Pemi
“Aldo Leopold, Bob Marshall, and Henry David T
When it comes to Wilderness I am holier than all three
That bridge will be gone, just wait and see
Even purer then MY Wilderness shall be”
49 years that bridge had stood up the river from Lincoln Wood
It was there before the Wilderness was declared
Previous rangers even had it repaired
But if it reached 50 it must be preserved to the good (as the rules are understood)
That bridge offended her Wilderness sense
So she simply deferred all maintenance
Then one day made a pronouncement:
“Its dangerous! The public will be safer without it”
That’s her excuse, that’s what she’ll say
Even though it will cost more to carry the pieces away
“Repair it for less?” “Ha! You’re missing the point
This is about doing my will, not doing what’s right
So send in your letters, come voice your concern
Your decision has been made for you, as you’ll soon learn”
“They held a public hearing in Lincoln town
Though no congressman could stop me, or even slow me down
And these locals are not so acute
My crew took that bridge out before they filed suit”
“JE Henry was not as powerful as they say
After all, he had to sell this land back in the day
He was no civil servant, like me
With bureaucratic power absolute over the Pemi”
Whose woods these are she thinks she knows
Because she wears the Chief Ranger’s clothes
Now the bridge is gone, only the pieces are left
Piles of debris give evidence
Though complaints come in, she cares not what they say
For in the end she had her way.
John
The writer's editorial comment first as to why the poem came to be:
Even as time passes I am still appalled by the bureaucratic arrogance of the bridge removal. This point was driven home for me again this past Saturday. Two gentlemen, who said they had been hiking here since before there was a "Lincoln Woods" fancy parking lot and all, didn't know the bridge had been removed. It seems no amount of redundant signage can wipe-out the memory of this bridge. With these thoughts weighing somewhat heavily on me, I penned the following doggerel.
Molly’s Folly
(with apologies to Robert Frost)
Whose woods these are she thinks she knows
Because she wears the Chief Ranger’s clothes
The White Mountain Forest is her domain
It is she who gets to say what goes (or stays)
Like a queen at the height of her reign
Her obsession is to widen her fame
She wants to make a mark, a legacy
To impress her bosses in Washington DC
Thus, she’ll interpret Wilderness Policy
With a decision resulting in a travesty
It began said she, in a disingenuous way,
That while she was hiking up the river one day
She was Shocked! Shocked, to see
A bridge crossing HER East Pemi
“Aldo Leopold, Bob Marshall, and Henry David T
When it comes to Wilderness I am holier than all three
That bridge will be gone, just wait and see
Even purer then MY Wilderness shall be”
49 years that bridge had stood up the river from Lincoln Wood
It was there before the Wilderness was declared
Previous rangers even had it repaired
But if it reached 50 it must be preserved to the good (as the rules are understood)
That bridge offended her Wilderness sense
So she simply deferred all maintenance
Then one day made a pronouncement:
“Its dangerous! The public will be safer without it”
That’s her excuse, that’s what she’ll say
Even though it will cost more to carry the pieces away
“Repair it for less?” “Ha! You’re missing the point
This is about doing my will, not doing what’s right
So send in your letters, come voice your concern
Your decision has been made for you, as you’ll soon learn”
“They held a public hearing in Lincoln town
Though no congressman could stop me, or even slow me down
And these locals are not so acute
My crew took that bridge out before they filed suit”
“JE Henry was not as powerful as they say
After all, he had to sell this land back in the day
He was no civil servant, like me
With bureaucratic power absolute over the Pemi”
Whose woods these are she thinks she knows
Because she wears the Chief Ranger’s clothes
Now the bridge is gone, only the pieces are left
Piles of debris give evidence
Though complaints come in, she cares not what they say
For in the end she had her way.
