I said when they handed me my diploma, <br />I said to myself I will be good <br />And wise and brave and helpful to others; <br />I said I will carry the Christian creed <br />Into the practice of medicine! <br />Somehow the world and the other doctors <br />Know what's in your heart as soon as you make <br />This high-soured resolution. <br />And the way of it is they starve you out. <br />And no one comes to you but the poor. <br />And you find too late that being a doctor <br />Is just a way of making a living. <br />And when you are poor and have to carry <br />The Christian creed and wife and children <br />All on your back, it is too much! <br />That's why I made the Elixir of Youth, <br />Which landed me in the jail at Peoria <br />Branded a swindler and a crook <br />By the upright Federal Judge!<br /><br />Edgar Lee Masters<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dr-siegfried-iseman/
