The Hit That Failed

He dashed off a poem in red hot haste,

     And his eyes they gleamed a glare;

And his blood ran warm through his half-starved form,

     As he tossed his shock of hair.

And he laughed, “ha ha!” And he laughed, “ho ho!”

     And he hugged himself with glee;

And he cried, “At last, by the great horn blast!

     I have made a great hit,” said he.

“I don’t know what a line of it means,

     But it’s got the snap and go;

It has got the pike the magazines like,

     And I know it stands a show.”

And he laughed, “ha ha!” And he laughed, “ho ho!”

     And they bought it right away;

But the grass did wave o’er his lonely grave,

     Ere they got around to pay.

May 26, ‘09