1 | <h1>In the Caboose.</h1> |
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2 | |
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3 | <%% content_for 'poem' do -%> |
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4 | "Train delayed? and what's to say?" |
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5 | "Blocked by last night's snow they say." |
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6 | Seven hours or so to wait; |
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7 | Well, that's pleasant! but there's the freight. |
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8 | Depot loafing no one fancies, |
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9 | We'll try the caboose and take our chances. |
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10 | |
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11 | Cool this morning in Watertown, |
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12 | Somewhat frosty___mercury down; |
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13 | Enter caboose___roaring fire, |
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14 | With never an air-hole; heat so dire |
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15 | That we shrivel and pant; we are roasted through- |
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16 | Outside, thermometer thirty-two. |
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17 | |
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18 | We start with a jerk and suddenly stop. |
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19 | "What's broke?" says one; another "What's up?", |
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20 | "Oh, nothing," they answer, "That's our way: |
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21 | You must stand the jerking, sorry to say." |
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22 | We "stand it" with oft this painful thought: |
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23 | Are our heads on yet, or are they not? |
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24 | |
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25 | Comrades in misery___let me see; |
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26 | Girl like a statue opposite me; |
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27 | Back and forth the others jostle___ |
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28 | She never winks, nor moves a muscle; |
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29 | See her, as she sits there now; |
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30 | She's "well balanced," anyhow. |
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31 | |
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32 | Woman in trouble, tearful eyes, |
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33 | Sits by the window, softly cries, |
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34 | Pity___for griefs we may not know, |
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35 | For breasts that ache, for tears that flow, |
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36 | Though we know not why. Her eyelids red |
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37 | Tell a sorrowful tale___some hope is dead. |
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38 | |
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39 | Man who follows the Golden Rule, |
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40 | And lends his papers___a pocket full, |
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41 | Has a blank book___once in a minute |
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42 | Has an idea, and writes it in it. |
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43 | Guess him? Yes, of course I can, |
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44 | He's a___well___a newspaper man. |
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45 | |
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46 | Blue-eyed fairy, wrapped in fur; |
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47 | Sweet young mother tending her. |
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48 | Fairy thinks it's "awful far," |
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49 | Wants to get off this "naughty car." |
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50 | So do we, young golden-hair; |
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51 | All this crowd are with you there! |
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52 | <%% end -%> |
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53 | |
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54 | <%%= simple_format @content_for_poem %> |
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55 | |
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56 | <p><a href="http://skyways.lib.ks.us/poetry/walls/caboose.html">-- Ellen P. Allerton.</a></p> |
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