The Taxpayer's Threnody

The last witness to be heard by the Federal Royal Commission on Taxation strongly urged that the mental state of the
taxpayer was an important factor in remodelling the system.

Oh, gatherer of taxes, tell me how
   You hold your callously aloof position?
Does ne'er a twinge of anguish wring your brow
   When pondering our cerebral condition?
Impersonal you are, O man of wood!
   Mechanical your every act and dictum,
Say, would your heart be softened if you could
   Perceive the mental state of each poor victim?
 
O cold automaton!  How can your hand
   So press upon a living, breathing nation --
A robot, taxing robots thro' the land
   With no distinction, no least deviation?
Consider, if you're human, how your scourge
   Affects the mind of some gay, thriftless person
Compared with its effect when e'er you urge
   The self-same impost on some dour McPherson.
 
Come to my house, O man, of pity shorn,
   Come as a fellow creature, then, sedately,
In my queer mental state, abject, forlorn,
   Behold the wreckage you have wrought but lately.
Know then why men of late vie wme askance,
   And shake their heads, and deem me "rather funny,"
Then, moved by Pity's urge, you may, perchance,
   Admit, cold tyrant, that you owe me money.