We know that all Defense Secretaries–yes, even William Cohen–must bow to the poetic titan among them, Donald Rumsfeld. Here’s a taste of one of his classics, an improvisation from the Pentagon briefing room:

The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know
We don’t know.

—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

See many more in this article on Slate.

But I still think Caspar Weinberger would have made for a fine, fine poem.

Reminiscent of this fine poem from the 1980s comic strip “Bloom County”:

How I love to watch the morn,
With golden sun that shines,
Up above to nicely warm
These frosty toes of mine.

The wind doth taste of bittersweet,
Like jasper wine and sugar.
I bet it’s blown through others’ feet,
Like those of… Caspar Weinberger.

Yes, the missing words above were “Richard Cheney” and “Lynne.”

They visited the Quinta in 1990.

And Mark thought I’d waste all your time with Casper Weinberger!

That’s just so…. wrong.

Until few years ago it had a station master, though nobody uses the train to reach Vargellas. But the train stills stopping there.

Thanks for a good guess. I’m not sure that all that referring to presidents as numbers really took off until the 41 & 43 duo. I think that reference was to the size of their party doubling.

To reward your creativity, you get a hint: Mr. Secretary was the same party (and era) as 40, 41, & 43!

My first instinct, since you mentioned a sitting secretary of defense during a war, is to focus on “…as forty turned seventy-three…” I thought “forty” could refer to Ronald Reagan, the 40th president. And the sitting sec of defense when Reagan turned 73 (in 1984) was Caspar Weinberger.

But something tells me that’s not where this is going.