Of bosom friends I’ve had but sev… Despite my years are ripe; I hope they’re now enjoying Heave… Although they’re not the type; Nor, candidly, no more am I,

As you gaze beyond the bay With such wanness in your eyes, You who have out—stayed your day, Seeing other stars arise, Slender though your lifehold be,

As nothingness draws near How I can see Inexorably clear My vanity. My sum of worthiness

Tick—tocking in my ear My dollar clock I hear. ‘Arise,’ it seems to say: ‘Behold another day To grasp the golden key

Pines against the sky, Pluming the purple hill; Pines . . . and I wonder why, Heart, you quicken and thrill? Wistful heart of a boy,

They thought I’d be a champion; They boasted loud of me. A dozen victories I’d won, The Press was proud of me. I saw myself with glory crowned,

One day the Great Designer sought His Clerk of Birth and Death. Said he: “Two souls are in my tho… to whom I gave life—breath. I deemed my work was fitly done,

Sez I: My Country calls? Well, l… I grins perlitely and declines wiv… Go, let ‘em plaster every blighted… ’Ere’s ONE they don’t stampede i… Them politicians with their greasy…

O’er the dark pines she sees the s… And in the west, all tremulous, a… And soothing sweet she hears the m… Of cow—bells jangled in the fields… Quite listless, for her daily sten…

You’ve heard of Belching Billy, l… As punk a chunk of Yukon scum as… A satellite of Soapy Smith, a cap… A slimy tribute—taker from the La… But say, you never heard of how he…

There was Claw—fingered Kitty and… When unto them in the Long, Long… Bearing his prize of a black fox p… His cheeks were blanched as the fl… Deep in their dark, sin—calcined p…

When a girl’s sixteen, and as poor… And she hasn’t a friend and she ha… Heigh—ho! She’s as safe in Paris… As a lamb night—strayed where the… And that was I; oh, it’s seven ye…

I often wonder how Life clicks because They don’t make women now Like Mammy was. When broods of two or three

Since four decades you’ve been to… Both Guide and Friend, I fondly hope you’ll always be, Right to the end; And though my rhymes you rarely sc…