XXXVII: Chefs and Kings

He called me “chef”, complaining by and by,

where I, from out my squalid kitchen come.

‘tis I, the cook, for whom the people cry

when simple pleasures fail to meet their sum.

"What's this?" I say, with salutary frown,

"What troubles this here plate from which you dine?"

And they, "Ah, this! Ah, that!" like they've a crown,

and I their jester, poised and prim a…