I RAN a store; I underpaid my help And lied about the goods I sold; Lied in advertisements in the newspapers. Then the war came. It hurt my business, And so the things the papers said Hurt my investments. True things they were, those journalistic utterances, And bravely said. But I wrote solemn letters to the papers, Signing various names; "All I want is Fair Play," they said. O. Henry could have made a yarn of that, I think. JANITOR CARL CARLSEN I WAS a petty grafter But given so to whining The tenants in the apartment house All pitied me a lot. An inefficient janitor Entitled "superintendent"; I was a shadow boxer, And the landlord thought I worked. Commissions from the butcher, Commissions from the newsman, Commissions from the grocer, Amounted up, in a year. One day, in greed for grafting, I tried to make the milkman Give me a larger percentage— He tried to shoot me dead. The bullet grazed my shoulder— The milkman was convicted. He's serving thirty years. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DEAR ELIZABETH: (FOR ELIZABETH DIFIORE) by KAREN SWENSON THE DREAM by GEORGE GORDON BYRON YUSSOUF by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL NATIONAL ODE; INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA by BAYARD TAYLOR COMPOSED BY THE SIDE OF GRASMERE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ODES: BOOK 1: ODE 8. ON LEAVING HOLLAND by MARK AKENSIDE |