Nothing in life is alien to you: <br />I was a penniless girl from Summum <br />Who stepped from the morning train in Spoon River. <br />All the houses stood before me with closed doors <br />And drawn shades -- I was barred out; <br />I had no place or part in any of them. <br />And I walked past the old McNeely mansion, <br />A castle of stone 'mid walks and gardens, <br />With workmen about the place on guard, <br />And the County and State upholding it <br />For its lordly owner, full of pride. <br />I was so hungry I had a vision: <br />I saw a giant pair of scissors <br />Dip from the sky, like the beam of a dredge, <br />And cut the house in two like a curtain. <br />But at the "Commercial" I saw a man, <br />Who winked at me as I asked for work -- <br />It was Wash McNeely's son. <br />He proved the link in the chain of title <br />To half my ownership of the mansion, <br />Through a breach of promise suit -- the scissors. <br />So, you see, the house, from the day I was born, <br />Was only waiting for me.<br /><br />Edgar Lee Masters<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ida-frickey/
