Date: April 12th, 2026 9:09 PM
Author: in the naked
Of Man’s first Folly, and the fruit
Of heedless heat when reason’s mute,
Sing, Heavenly Muse, though not too near,
For here the subject’s strange, yet dear:
Not war, nor Heaven’s rebellious host,
But that small sheath men need the most.
Say first what cause, in passion’s blaze,
Moved mortal flesh in fumbling haze
To reach, mid-swoon and partial undress,
For crinkling aid in near-distress;
And how, from foil with sacred snap,
There came Salvation in a wrap.
Hail, pliant ward! Hail, glossy ring!
Not born for pomp, nor fashioned king;
Yet throned in nightstands, drawers, and coats,
Above the rashest human votes.
For when the blood its counsel wins
And all wise governance thence thins,
Thou, little minister of sense,
Stand’st posted at the gates of consequence.
No trumpet hailed thy first debut,
No cherub choir thy virtues knew,
No sculptor carved in marble fine
Thy rolled circumference divine.
What artist dares, with brush sublime,
Immortalize thy latex prime?
Who paints the glistening prophylact
And calls it high aesthetic fact?
Yet still thy office must be praised,
Though brows be damp and bedsheets crazed.
For in that hot, ungoverned hour
When impulse swells to tyrant power,
When trousers lie like kingdoms sacked
And dignity grows sorely cracked,
Thou enter’st not with sultry air,
But like an auditor: severe.
Then Lust, that loud usurping lord,
Would storm the keep without accord;
But thou oppos’st his lawless drum
With stern rebuke: “Good sir, not dumb.”
Thou check’st the siege, thou stall’st the charge,
Thou keep’st tomorrow’s dread at large.
A paltry membrane, some would sneer—
Yet cheaper far than childcare, dear.
O how the mighty curse thy name
In that brief pause before the game.
For none, inflamed and half undrest,
Cries, “Lo! bureaucracy is best.”
No fevered swain in accents honeyed
Hath moaned, “By Heaven, how well-planned moneyed.”
No ravening heart, in amorous riot,
Desires procedure, thought, or quiet.
And still, despite complaint and scoff,
They bless thee once the lights are off.
What art thou then? A rubber law.
A modest “Wait.” A moral “Haw.”
Not pleasure’s prince nor Venus’ pet,
But consequence management, and yet
How many boasts, how many smirks,
Depend on thy unlovely works.
Thou art to lust what brakes are speed:
Annoying till the hour of need.
See now the mortal male in heat,
With swollen pride and uncertain feet,
Who deems himself some conquering ram,
Yet can’t locate the thing worth damn.
He paws through drawer and coat and sock
As doom ticks softly on the clock.
Then—miracle!—thy foil he finds,
And sudden piety fills his mind.
Not all the hosts of upper air,
Nor all the saints invoked in prayer,
Bring quicker gratitude than thou
When panic beads the shining brow.
For many a man, all bold before,
Hath gone half-white at Nature’s door
And seen in one small wrapped device
The market price of being nice.
But woe to him, rash Adam’s heir,
Who tries with teeth thy pack to tear,
Or fumbles thee in backward pride,
Or lets conceit his hands misguide.
For Comedy, that watchful sprite,
Loves most the overconfident night;
And thou, though blameless in intent,
Art often witness to mismanagement.
Still be thou honored, awkward shield,
In wallet bent or bedside field.
Though never star of song or dream,
Thou sav’st the plot from sequel’s scream.
No laurels crown thy humble sum,
No bards grow rich from singing “condom,”
And yet this verse, though strange and dumb,
Now lays a wreath where none hath come.
So let high Heaven record it plain:
Among the checks on mortal brain,
When appetite would proudly plod
As though exempt from law or God,
There dwells in foil, with rolled-up grace,
A thin, unsung defender’s place.
Then sound, ye bedsprings, beat, ye drum—
All hail the freshly opened condom.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5856481&forum_id=2ค1¤7PHPSESSID=188a95202f833e097d78c96d76bac3f6#49813286)