The Tailless Monkey There is no help-but hotch pot!-in the skies When Astacus sees Crab and Lobster rise Man has spine, and hopes of heaven-to-be, Lacks the Amoeba's immortality What protoplasm gains in mobile mirth Is loss of the stability of earth. Matter and sense and mind have their day: Nature presents the bill and all must pay. If, as I am not, I were free to choose, How Buddhahood would battle with The Booze! My certainty that destiny is "good" Rests on its picking me for Buddhahood. Were I a drunkard, I should think I had. Good evidence that fate was "bloody bad." -Aleister Crowley (Book of Lies, 1913, Red Wheel/Weiser LLC)