THROWBACK THURSDAY: MASTERPIECE #1212 (5/13/15)

/// View this painting, an odd composition
with a very large central omission.
Men shake hands, face-to-face,
but the big empty space
was ‘cause someone reneged on commission.

/// When three people shake hands there’s no doubt
that one guy’s hand will hover, left out.
He should just wait his turn,
there’s no sign that they’d spurn
his hand, which would make the man pout.

/// Odd man out is no Machiavelli.
So we all wonder just why in hell he
holds out his right palm
with nary a qualm
just to rub that white-haired guy’s beer belly.

/// A unique hat’s on every man’s head.
It’s a sign they’re diverse, many said.
If they held the same views
from the same source of news,
they’d be wearing brimmed caps colored red.

/// All these men who, in Switzerland dwell,
recount stories about William Tell,
and of three men who, both
took the famed Rütli Oath,
and united with vows to rebel.

/// The Swiss nation’s a confederation,
an Alpine (multi-tongued) population.
Zwingli and Calvin, too,
were two Protestants who
made their land a hub of Reformation.

/// There’s Swiss Army knives, chocolate and cheese,
Swiss Guards, cuckoo clocks, Swiss chard and skis.
Their neutrality (bold)
let them hold Nazi gold.
(All I know are clichés, such as these.)