“A fool and his money…”
But how did he come by it?
Did he earn his money?
Was it by merit?
“A fool and his money…”
Sounds kind o’ strange to me,
I’d really like to know
How he got his money.
“A fool and his money…”
I heard this at school,
I did not give it much thought
Perhaps then I was a fool.
But having thought about it
It suddenly struck me
That at some point in time
A fool had money.
I know that there is more
Don’t think me absurd,
I’ll add those words in a moment
To complete the proverb.
But for right now
I’ve been beaten to the draw,
Like a fowl, “a fool and his money”
Has stuck in my craw.
“A fool and his money…”
Where did he get it from?
By now you must really think
I am a clown.
“A fool and his money…”
This sounds so weird,
It is somewhat like Blackbeard
Having no beard.
“A fool and his money…
Are soon parted,”
How they got together at first
Is where we started.
I will tell you this,
Then most of us are fools,
Soon parted from our money
Is our daily rule.
The little that we get
Definitely goes in a hurry,
Hence, out of necessity we are fools
Soon parted from our money.
From paycheck to paycheck
From pension to pension,
The only thing that we get to keep
Is the apprehension.
The apprehension re the bill
We defaulted on paying
And the misapprehension of thinking
We’d fix it by delaying.
The misapprehension
Of borrowing to pay a loan
Helping that very poor loan-shark
Keep more meat on his bone.
I had dared not done this
When I was still at school,
Those erudite English teachers
Would have called me a fool.
The meaning they wanted
Was quite straightforward
But to try to totally apply it today
Would be backward.
Easy come, easy go,
Hence the fool’s easy money,
Having not earned it in the first place
Why should he keep any?
Easy come, easy go
Perhaps easy will come again,
Yours truly could do with a little more
To help ease his pain.
A fool and his money
Are soon parted
Hopefully, we’ve come a long way
From where we started.
Stewart Russell © March 23, 2024
