HOW many times, during the twenty years I was your leader, friends of Spoon River, Did you neglect the convention and caucus, And leave the burden on my hands Of guarding and saving the people's cause? -- Sometimes because you were ill; Or your grandmother was ill; Or you drank too much and fell asleep; Or else you said: "He is our leader, All will be well; he fights for us; We have nothing to do but follow." But oh, how you cursed me when I fell, And cursed me, saying I had betrayed you, In leaving the caucus room for a moment, When the people's enemies, there assembled, Waited and watched for a chance to destroy The Sacred Rights of the People. You common rabble! I left the caucus To go to the urinal! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO A MOUNTAIN DAISY by ROBERT BURNS NATURES COOK by MARGARET LUCAS CAVENDISH ODE ON THE SPRING by THOMAS GRAY ON MY FIRST DAUGHTER by BEN JONSON SILENCE SINGS by THOMAS STURGE MOORE CA' THE YOWES TO THE KNOWES' by ISOBEL (ISABEL) PAGAN |