Be that as it may I should be sorry to be dead
From the head down, or from the front back: that head
That is in fact footless, is a factitious crown —
Summit of nothing, cut off from the neck down,
Decapitated — since what without his ship
Is a captain — the spike gone what is the tip?
What also is the briskest Front on earth
Whose Back is riveted throughout its girth —
Whose shop-front of pugnacity and pep
Is held in place with rivets in the back shop?
To be decapitated or to be defronted
Is much the same — from the Front backwards dead,
Or the chin downward — all that can be said
Is that the slow-footed foot suffers the less,
The spur removed, and the Back does blankly press
Onward blindbeggarly — or if it doesn't
Is none the wiser — only the Front's uncousined,
Widowed or orphaned pronto for the lack
Of a mere bagatelle — a plain unvarnished Back!