When Mrs. Malone got a letter from Pat <br />She started to read it aloud in her flat. <br />'Dear Mary,' it started, 'I can't tell you much, <br />I'm somewhere in France, and I'm fightin' the Dutch; <br />I'm chokin' wid news thot I'd like to relate, <br />But it's little a soldier's permitted t' state. <br />Do ye mind Red McPhee- well, he fell in a ditch <br />An' busted an arrm, but I can't tell ye which. <br /> <br />'An' Paddy O'Hara was caught in a flame <br />An' rescued by- Faith, I can't tell ye his name. <br />Last night I woke up wid a terrible pain; <br />I thought for awhile it would drive me insane. <br />Oh, the suff'rin, I had was most dreadful t' bear! <br />I'm sorry, my dear, but I can't tell ye where. <br />The doctor he gave me a pill, but I find <br />It's conthrary to rules t' disclose here the kind. <br /> <br />'I've been t' the dintist an' had a tooth out. <br />I'm sorry t' leave you so shrouded in doubt <br />But the best I can say is that one tooth is gone, <br />The censor won't let me inform ye which one. <br />I met a young fellow who knows ye right well, <br />An' ye know him, too, but his name I can't tell. <br />He's Irish, red-headed, an' there with th' blarney, <br />His folks once knew your folks back home in Killarney.' <br /> <br />'By gorry,' said Mrs. Malone in her flat, <br />'It's hard t' make sinse out av writin' like that, <br />But I'll give him as good as he sends, that I will.' <br />So she went right to work with her ink well an' quill, <br />An' she wrote, 'I suppose ye're dead eager fer news- <br />You know when ye left we were buyin' the shoes; <br />Well, the baby has come, an' we're both doin' well; <br />It's a - - . Oh, but that's somethin' they won't let me tell.'<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/mrs-malone-and-the-censor/
