For The Want Of A Cabaret Voltaire T-Shirt

On a black t-shirt. It was a look. You had to be there.

For the want of a Cabaret Voltaire shirt, the look was lost...

He couldn't find the t-shirt he needed. The girl he'd met that afternoon in the student union loved Cabaret Voltaire. It was their connection. It was his "in." He said he'd wear it to that bar that doesn't check IDs very well. She said she looked forward to seeing it - and him. He couldn't find it. Who took it? He cursed his roommates and their ancestors, and successors and assigns. He settled for a WHFS sweatshirt. It was not up to the task, and he looked like he was only at the bar to kill some time before pumpkin picking. She was not impressed. All of her energy went elsewhere - anywhere else but to him.

For the want of a look, the evening was lost...

He tried to recover. He had memorized some Cabaret Voltaire lyrics. He tried discussing The Cure. He tried bringing Pop Will Eat Itself into the mix. He tried too hard. The evening was lost. She was lost.

For the want of an evening, the courtship was lost...

Had he been given the chance, he would have endeared himself to her instantly, and they would have uncovered acres and acres of common ground. Dates would follow. He would inspire and encourage her to change majors and follow her dreams, which she would do to spectacular effect. She would give him the little push he needed to do the same, as a singer-songwriter-poet. 

For the want of a courtship, the marriage was lost...

Had dates been allowed to follow the evening, they would have married and loved and procreated and changed the world for the better. Instead, she became an accountant. He went on to a career in temping and retail (which would be fine if that's what either of them liked, but it wasn't).

For the want of a marriage, the prodigy was lost...

Their second-born child would have been a strange little STEM sorceress, and her adoration of numbers and science and the beautiful, simple complexities of cause and effect would have led to scholarships and grants and Cambridge and a Nobel prize in physics. She'd endure endless, terribly personal and vile assaults from the right wing media with aplomb, and eventually - after a few decades - even they would quietly, grudgingly admit that her equations and mitigation strategies were instrumental in turning the tide against global climate change - and had ushered in an epoch of unparalleled peace and prosperity.

For the want of a prodigy, humanity was lost...

"You all know how this ends," he bellowed at his rommates' closed bedroom doors, "Where's my damn Cabaret Voltaire t-shirt? I need it!"