Nixon Waterman

“ Still count as one of us, and get more “chink.”
Your plays ain’t any good the way they stand:
Thou ought’st to tone them up with something nice:
Some coon-songs, fire-engines, blood-hounds and
A swingin’ bridge and chunks of floatin’ ice
Wouldst make your old plays draw to beat the band,
And folks wouldst crowd your show at any price! ”

“ LINES WROTE WHILST THINKIN’ ABOUT HOW PA ACTS WHEN DRESSIN’ UP
Whilst pa and ma art dressin’ up to go
To church or somewhere, so I’ve heard ma tell
The neighbor women, pa tears ’round pell-mell
And turns things upside down, and wants to know
Who hid his clothes! and makes ma stop and show [Pg 16]
Him where to find them. Ma she know’st full well
They’re where he’s kept them since he earnest to dwell
In our house: that’s been twenty years or so. ”

“ I’llst make them wish that they wast great like me!
I’m tired dwellin’ midst surroundin’s where
Cheap things art always waitin’ to be done:
I’dst rather loaf and dream and have long hair
Like all great poets dost: and, oh! what fun,
To dash off lays and sell them, then and there,
Whenever I’llst be needin’ any “mon.”
[Pg 13]
THOUGHTS THOUGHT WHILST THINKIN’ ABOUT MARY AND HER PET LAMB ”

“ For I’llst not never smoke no more until
I’m ten times older than Mathusalem!
[Pg 55]
SONNET WROTE WHILST THINKIN’ ABOUT A VACATION SPENT ON A FARM
O Farmer, independentest of all
Mankind art thou! ”

“ Shouldst know just how to sweep a room, nor spurn [Pg 24]
A poor but honest man, for that’s the sort
Pa wast. And ma insists no woman ort
To spend more money than a man canst earn.
A kid-gloved dandy with a stove-pipe hat
Wed ma’s proud cousin. Say, but he wast sly!
“Our home shalt be next thing to Heaven!” That
Wast what he vowed. Ma says that that’s no lie
For they art packed into a stingy flat
Four stairways up, and plumb against the sky!
[Pg 25]
THOUGHTS THOUGHT WHILST THINKIN’ OF PEARY ON A HOT SUMMER DAY
O Peary! ”