I was sick, but more than that, I was mad <br />At the crooked police, and the crooked game of life. <br />So I wrote to the Chief of Police at Peoria: <br />"I am here in my girlhood home in Spoon River, <br />Gradually wasting away. <br />But come and take me, I killed the son <br />Of the merchant prince, in Madam Lou's, <br />And the papers that said he killed himself <br />In his home while cleaning a hunting gun -- <br />Lied like the devil to hush up scandal, <br />For the bribe of advertising. <br />In my room I shot him, at Madam Lou's, <br />Because he knocked me down when I said <br />That, in spite of all the money he had, <br />I'd see my lover that night."<br /><br />Edgar Lee Masters<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/rosie-roberts/
