IX

Last night I tumbled off the water cart--

It was a peacherino of a drunk;

I put the cocktail market on the punk

And tore up all the sidewalks from the start.

The package that I carried was a tart

That beat Vesuvius out for sizz and spunk,

And when they put me in my little bunk

You couldn't tell my jag and me apart.

Oh! would I were the ice man for a space,

Then might I cool this red-hot cocoanut,

Corral the jim-jam bugs that madly race

Around the eaves that from my forehead jut--

Or will a carpenter please come instead

And build a picket fence around my head?

X

As one who with his landlord stands deuce high

And blocks his board bill off with I O U's,

Touching the barkeep lightly for his booze,

Sidestepping when a creditor goes by,

Soaking his mother's watch-chain on the sly,

Haply his ticker, too, haply his shoes,

Till Mr. Johnson comes to turn him loose

And lift the mortgage from that poor cheap guy;

So am I now small change in Mamie's scorn,

A microbe's egg, or two-bits in a fog,

A first cornet that cannot toot a horn,

A Waterbury watch that's slipped a cog;

For when her make-up's twisted to a frown,

What can I but go 'way back and sit down?

The Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum · 第 14 / 29 题