In honor of Joe Biden’s stepping down (and with a bit of midsummer laziness), I am going to post only in English this time. Montaigbakhtinian reviendra à la publication trilingue la semaine prochaine. Montaigbakhtinian volverá al puesto trilingüe la semana que viene. There is also a Note on the shilling.

I have joked with my family that I am continuing to make progress on my summer’s political objectives. After the French Left’s (sort of) victory, now I’ve gotten Biden to resign. Next task: to get the nomination for Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. For the moment, this is looking like a challenge as the party is rallying around Kamala Harris. But to me this does not seem the most promising strategy. Winning the election is the goal, no?

As for defecation (Some things rhyme…), as of August 2025 at least, it seemed to need endless revision.

Another major poem full of acute social observation

Should I teach the young to use a fork,

Their parents no longer willing?

Reacquaint barbers with combs and scissors?

Clippers cut right to the billing.

Oh write I would of larger things –

Of elections, plastics, killing!

But instead in rhyme my hours are spent,

Returning nary a shilling.

Some things rhyme and others we don’t speak about

Or how, while seated, you can be saving paper, day in and day out ?

To struggle with the first largesse –

A task that strains the face.

But then it falls, perhaps a splash, and

Oh sighs, a smile the straining replace.

And once again that moment arrives

For restoring the workspace.

Does a loving pat begin the task,

Before wiping proceeds apace?

At times a digit it gets discolored,

But of soap you’re not afraid!

And liquids still course your pipes

Departing with nary a please.

So thrifty you can be with the paper,

Tearing in two or threes.

While thinking how often you’ve done all this,

Like so many he’s and she’s.

Note on the shilling

A friend says my use of the word “shilling” dates me, since in the United Kingdom in 1971 “decimalisation” replaced the shilling with a five-pence piece. East Africans will note, however, that there continue to be plenty of shillings in circulation in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia.

I note as well that early British shillings (from the time of King James I) featured the alternative reverse inscription EXURGAT DEUS DISSIPENTUR INIMICI, meaning “Let God arise and His enemies be scattered.”

This is a Miltonian, or even Hebrew, idea of God being at war with others seeking to defeat Him and his followers. It does not seem to me that an omniscient, omnipotent God has any such struggles. And of course one of the great scourges of human history is religions that pit some “us” versus other “thems.”

— Poems and artwork by William Eaton.

For more Eaton poetry and prose: 4 billion eggs. This book has items in English (mainly) and also French, Spanish and Italian. Most of these poems or short personal essays were originally published on Montaigbakhtinian.