My parents thought that I would be <br />As great as Edison or greater: <br />For as a boy I made balloons <br />And wondrous kites and toys with clocks <br />And little engines with tracks to run on <br />And telephones of cans and thread. <br />I played the cornet and painted pictures, <br />Modeled in clay and took the part <br />Of the villain in the "Octoroon." <br />But then at twenty-one I married <br />And had to live, and so, to live <br />I learned the trade of making watches <br />And kept the jewelry store on the square, <br />Thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, -- <br />Not of business, but of the engine <br />I studied the calculus to build. <br />And all Spoon River watched and waited <br />To see it work, but it never worked. <br />And a few kind souls believed my genius <br />Was somehow hampered by the store. <br />It wasn't true. The truth was this: <br />I didn't have the brains.<br /><br />Edgar Lee Masters<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/walter-simmons/
