The palm extended in welcome:
Look! for you
I have unclenched my fist.
Everyone thinks:
“I am the most important
Person at present.”
The sane remember to add:
“important, I mean, to me.”
True Love enjoys
twenty-twenty vision,
but talks like a myopic.
Once having shat
in his new apartment,
he began to feel at home.
When Chiefs of State
prefer to work at night,
let the citizens beware.
Marginalia
1965 – 1968
Collected Poems
W.H. Auden