Ink-Sack

The Squid, frightened or angry, shoots darkness
Out of her ink-sack; the fighting destroyer throws
out a smoke screen;
And fighting governments produce lies.
But squid and warship do it to confuse the enemy, governments
Mostly to stupefy their own people.
It might be better to let the roof burn and the walls crash
Than save a nation with floods of excrement.

Robinson Jeffers (The Double Axe and other poems, 1948)