Persia doesn't exist, obviously, but inertia does.
“Why don’t we board a train and go off to Persia?
Persia doesn’t exist, obviously, but inertia
does. It’s a better vehicle than any old engine, Johnny,
and we may have a comfortable, an eventful journey”.

“Why do you call me Johnny when you know I am Billy, Mary?
Perhaps because of inertia? It’s Johnny you want to marry,
not me. But he is not in Persia, he went off to Warsaw,
although after 1945 it’s a different city also”.

“Of course, you are Billy, Billy; and I’m not Mary, either.
Actually, I am Suzy: you are welcome to check my Visa.
But let’s be Mary and Johnny, like in the Ark of Noah,
or nameless, the way we were when we were spermatozoa”.

“Because there are but two sexes, there is a lot of nuance,
and history’s where our exes join kings and ruins.
When someone’s whereabouts become a mystery,
you should take the train of thought that goes to history”.

“Ah, there is so much action! In history, willy-nilly,
Mary becomes just Suzy, and Johnny Billy,
B.C. becomes A.D., and Persia Warsaw.
For history breeds inertia, and vice versa”.

“Ah, mixing inertia with history bespeaks individuality!
Mary, let’s take a chance, this father of causality:
let’s take the express to where folks live in utter penury
and where the reality quickly becomes a memory”.

“Oh, he is my dear boy, my slowly peeled banana!”
“And she is my sweetheart filled with Tampax Americana!”
“The future arrives on time whistling Domini Gloria,
and we must take it eastward, where it’s always earlier”.