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We have failed with the bungee cord experiment.
We have disgraced ourselves in front of our friends.
Yesterday all was cake-making and merriment;
today our funding inevitably will come to an end.
If you think back to the whole scooter debacle,
you might see that it was the beginning of a trend.
We knew the feather-cushion seat would tickle.
We could have guessed the rubber kickstand would bend.
Years ago, in college, we had our heads screwed on.
We carried notebooks everywhere we went
and asked questions of the freshmen on the lawn.
Even in grad school we said what we meant:
"A blue car travels northeast at 18 miles per hour.
A red truck travels the same direction at the same speed.
How long before each driver needs a shower?"
Our approach was pure science, rigorous indeed.
But slowly, over time, things seemed to degenerate.
Things fell apart, if you'll permit me that cliché.
What once was instantaneous now produced a wait.
We found ourselves going out at night to make hay.
And now, after fifteen years of work and trying,
the sum of all our thought has gone awry.
But there's no progress made in hopeless sighing.
We'll rethink the bungees. And they'll work, by and by.
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