Ups And Downs

I wish that I could write some verse

     That hadn’t e’er been writ;

I wish that I could write a joke

     With something new in it.

I wish a story I could pen

     Whose length was just O.K.,

If I could do these simple things

     I’d be way up to-day.

But editors are fussy chaps,

     They have a score of “whys”

My verses do not meet their wants,

     My jokes and puns likewise.

My stories are too long or short,

     Or have been told, they say;

Because they are so hard to suit

     Is why I’m down today.

June 6, ‘05