today's realization

"bring on the admiral" they cried
"for he will tell us what to do"
the old man though had early died
and lost was since the only clue

a coward was he, I believe
a craven, crafty liar
the clue could never be retrieved
entombed beneath the briar

truth was revealed when flowers bloomed
upon the thorned thicket
all ignorant and idly doomed
to prove the vast and wicked:

no clue the admiral had had
not now, not then, not ever
he knew the universe was mad
and dared to tell us never.