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Title: Need
Author: Edmund Vance Cooke [
More Titles by Cooke]
Don't you remember how you and I
Held a property nobody wanted to buy
In San José,
Until one day
A man came along from Franklin, Pa.?
And didn't we jump till we happened to find
The chap wasn't going it wholly blind,
But all the rest of the block was bought
And he simply had to have our lot.
Well, didn't our land go up in price
Till double the figures would scarce suffice?
And don't we sometimes figure and fret
How he got the best of us, even yet?
Don't you remember the perfect plan
You had, which needed another man
To make it win,
To jump right in
And everlasting make things spin?
And you said I had the requisite dash
And also the trifle of hoarded cash.
Was I glad to get in? Well, yes, indeed!
Until I saw the compelling need
Which had brought you to me, and then, "Ho! ho!
None of that for me, nay, not for Joe."
And I'm always provoked when I think you made
The plan get along without my aid.
Don't you remember the time we met
At Des Moines, or was it at Winterset?
But anyway, you
Were feeling blue
And tickled to see me through and through.
And "Come, let's open a bottle of--ink,"
Said you, "and see if it's good to drink."
But weren't you sorry because you spoke
When I had to tell you I was "broke"?
Oh, you lent me the saw-buck, I know, but still
I fancied your ardor had taken a chill.
And you've never been able to quite forget
That once I was "broke," and in your debt.
[The end]
Edmund Vance Cooke's poem: Need
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