Suez

We cut a narrow path across Suez

To save ourselves from going 'round the cape;

We lined up ships like candy in a Pez

So tight that they (and we) could not escape

When finally a ship had grown too large

To navigate and spun out of control:

A ship? Without its steering, it's a barge,

And foundered on a non-existent shoal.

It blocked for days the passage at one end

Sending us back two centuries and more.

When these things happen we then all descend

Into the patterns we held hard before:

And so it is a miracle, I think,

We didn't all wear ruffs, or start to stink.