Well, don’t you see this was the way of it:
We bought the farm with what he inherited,
And his brothers and sisters accused him of poisoning
His fathers mind against the rest of them.
And we never had any peace with our treasure.
The murrain took the cattle, and the crops failed.
And lightning struck the granary.
So we mortgaged the farm to keep going.
And he grew silent and was worried all the time.
Then some of the neighbors refused to speak to us,
And took sides with his brothers and sisters.
And I had no place to turn, as one may say to himself,
At an earlier time in life; “No matter,
So and so is my friend, or I can shake this off
With a little trip to Decatur.”
Then the dreadfulest smells infested the rooms.
So I set fire to the beds and the old witch-house
Went up in a roar of flame,
As I danced in the yard with waving arms,
While he wept like a freezing steer.
(Edgar Lee Masters)
More Poetry from Edgar Lee Masters:
Edgar Lee Masters Poems based on Topics: Life, War & Peace, Time, Friendship, Sisters- Epilogue (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- The Spooniad (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- Samson And Delilah (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- The Temple (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- Silence (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- America (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Life Poems, Time Poems, War & Peace Poems, Friendship Poems, Sisters PoemsBased on Keywords: poisoning, mortgaged, infested, murrain, decatur, dreadfulest, witch-house
- The Song Of Hiawatha XII: The Son Of The Evening Star (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems)
- Afternoon At A Parsonage (Jean Ingelow Poems)
- Poems - Written On The Deaths Of Three Lovely Children (Jean Ingelow Poems)
- The Passion Of Dido For Aeneas (John Denham Poems)
- The Pastoral, Or Lyric Muse Of Scotland. Canto First (Hector MacNeill Poems)