When I Get Time

When I get time I’m going to write

     A poem; great and fine;

I’ll pour my very heart and soul

     Into its every line.

It shall be called my masterpiece,

     By it I’ll stand or fall;

And in the ages yet to come

     It will be praised by all.

I’ve studied deep of human life,

     I’ve sought the ways of men

And all because I want to draw

     Them with my sharpened pen.

I want to sway the plastic world

     By thoughts and words sublime;

And try to make it better, too,

     And will, when I get time.

Alas! The years have come and gone,

     And each succeeding day

Adds cares to those already wrought,

     And time has slipped away.

The masterpiece I fain would write,

     I fear will be but rhyme;

Because the more of years I live,

     The less I have of time.

Oct. 16, ‘10