Frank J. Medina

“ Asks her his future life to bless?
To whom does she softly answer “yes”?
Her gentleman friend.
[34] “I’s Oo Boy”
I hug him closely to my breast,
I smooth his golden curls.
I’m happy when I’m with him,
And proud as any earl.
When I ask, “Whose boy are you?”
He’ll drop his little toy,
And running to my arms will cry,
“I’s oo boy.”
See his eyes jump with delight
When he is on my knee;
The world is full of sunshine
Since he has come to me.
My happiness is quite complete,
My peace none could destroy,
When I hear his sweet lips murmur,
“I’s oo boy.”
He is just sixteen months old ”

“ I’d chance the whole hereafter
Eternity of years.
Life offers us but little,
So little we can lose;
My patience you but nettle
When you my love refuse;
Our happiness may vanish
Before the sun will set ”

“ Another girl in all the world
That looks so good to me,
As my sweetheart in the country,
Who stole from me my heart.
And then the cruel hour arrived—
The time we had to part.
But what’s the use of talking,
I know those days have past.
They say that there is happiness
That is too good to last.
We all must have our troubles;
Each must have their share,
And each in turn believes their own
The hardest ones to bear.
So, thinking of the past, tonight,
And of the present too,
With all my love I fear that I
Was never meant for you.
[36] Truth
If in life you would succeed,
Start in early youth ”

“ No sunshine now we see in life, all is grief and despair,
Our joyful dreams of former years turned to trials, toil and care.
In old age we look back to these things we labored after.
Sometimes it causes sorrow; sometimes it causes laughter. ”

“ Over the ocean, broad and vast.
This story of old to me is told
’Midst the roar of the sea and the creak of the mast.
Millions have I in my deep bed; millions in silver; millions in gold;
Stones that are precious, jewels so rare ”

“ That makes a burden of our righteous life.
Who could bear this tantor without demur?
The oppressing wrong of the boarding-house mistress,
The pangs of a dyspeptic stomach,
The insolence of the landlady’s daughter,
The stale jokes of her fat husband,
The squalls of her sister’s baby,
The whistling of her ten-year-old son,
The vocalization of the lady in the next room,
The violent piano exercise of the widow boarder,
When we might seek another place? aye, there’s the respect,
Why leave this bedlam, to which no boarder e’er returns? ”

“ Or else refuse—don’t bid me wait.
Give or refuse; refusal I can brave
But not suspense; you only hesitate.
[13] “It’s All Been Done Before”
There are many things in this world
To aggravate a man,
And upset almost everything
That he will try and plan. ”

“ For what had been my struggle, and the money I had saved?
With all I could not call her back from the cold, cold grave.
The memory of my childhood days came back to me again,
I prayed to hear the old, old songs, but prayer was all in vain.
My Lady Fair
My lady loves the poems that are old ”

“ The poet with his lyre,
The same thing tries to do.
The musical composer
Wants something odd and queer;
When they think they are original,
Find they’ve an old idea.
The actor tells a funny joke,
But don’t say any more,
When he finds an actor told it
That was there the week before.
So this thing will continue;
New things are seldom found,
And history will repeat itself
While the world goes ’round.
But with all of Adam’s trouble,
No one could make him sore
By saying, when he did a thing,
It had been done before.
[14] Boarder’s Soliloquy (A Parody)
To board or not to board? ”