NEW WORLDS DON'T COME CHEAP!
In 1491
Columbus got some mail
From King Ferdy and Queen Izzy:
Traveler's checks to fund
Him on a westward sail
Designed to keep him busy.
By 1493
Columbus and his crew had found
Lots of sand and granite
(And an occasional tree).
Besides which, the world was round,
And they hadn't fallen off the planet.
But if these were the Indies,
Where were all the Hindis?
IS YOUR BROTHER'S NAME "SOUTH AMERIGO?"
To the New World came Amerigo Vespucci.
He found a perfect market for the Gucci.
His given name was Amerigo;
America, she was named for him, you know.
It's great to me, it's more than just minutiae
That there are no "United States of Vespuccia."
DR. LUTHER SAYS I SHOULD DO WHAT WITH MY TIARA?
A monk, Martin Luther, took a vacation
To concentrate on starting the Reformation:
Using a quill
And some parchment,
He started to grill
The papacy with an enlargement
Upon how the church
Had left itself in the lurch.
One of his 95 theses
Was that it was too easy
(And a sin)
To merely put some money in
The coffer
To pay
For the privilege of sinning one week from today
(Even though it seemed an attractive offer).
Besides, it was an imposition on the poor,
Who couldn't afford to buy repentance anymore.
Such was the tone of the sheet
Which Luther pounded
On the church door -- with theses complete
And well-grounded.
Of course, Luther had to feel jittery;
He could have been arrested for littering.