Latin
Latin is a magic key.
When you are in school,
And you reveal at last
A Latin word in your work,
Like a jasp among shite,
The teacher will love you,
Recognising in you something
Of her younger self.
And at The College,
Your speeches will be richly
Redolent of the old leaders.
When you sing arme virumque,
The young men and the old masters
will happily conflate the centurion
and the heroic drone pilot.
For Latin is indeed the magic key.
To know it is to wield a sacred power
over the minds of the little men and women,
who will follow you, like charmed rats
Knowing surely and absolutely
that you are their leader.
And you will lead them,
Per mare, ad aurum,
ad infinitum.
