The Protest

[helgi]

The Protest

There was once a sorry figure,

Who had always donned a cape,

He'd con his bread with magic,

And he'd quick achieve escape,

And thru the soggy gutter,

He'd take trouble there to traypse,

In doing this his object,

Was a pitied abject shape,

He was indeed a crafty tramp,

And stepping very well,

When he came across a quarry town,

That seemed no less a hell,

The women were upon a hill,

Chained against the trees,

Chanting loud among themselves,

Some manner of decree,

The tramp could hardly fathom,

What demon harness had them,

That already having trapped them,

Had them singing such an anthem!

He couldn't pass such ladies,

Who so clearly were in hades,

But he couldn't near them ayther,

For his fear that they had rabies!

He tipped his hat with manners,

And with pain he made a turn,

And he ventured into town,

To ask the folks what he could learn,

He checked his magic pockets,

That were somehow over budget,

The barkeep didn't get the tip,

But never kept no grudges,

They saw the tramp was magic,

For he wore the strangest collar,

And they saw he was a stranger,

To the honest gotten dollar,

For a dollar is mistaken,

If it's taken without work,

So no mistake is honest, when,

It changes short the clerk!

And when it came to changing short,

The tramp would claim it sport,

He'd never play it fair,

For only then he'd feel remorse,

A foreman sat beside him,

With his face stuck in a beer,

And though his face did meet the glass,

It wasn't giving cheers,

His garments were a tattered lot,

And murdered by their smears,

His face were wrinkled like a knot,

Tied from ear to ear,

The foreman made a belch,

Which to words had been disbanded,

"We don't need no loyders here,

Whose tricks and underhanded!

Of things we need, son, you're the last,

And here I'm being candid,

You're quite a shifty beggar, lad,

What crimes have ye had hand in?"

(the magician)

"How contented a people you are, I swear,

If I'm the last thing needed,

By now your needs have all been met,

Don't wish I were deleted!"

(the foreman)

"We lack for many a thing besides,

And harbor many a woe,

We've need for much upon the list,

Before a magic show"

(the magician)

"Still, if I'm the last upon,

This list that you have mentioned,

That I've arrived ahead of time,

Should never make you pensive,"

(the foreman)

"Did you see the hill or not,

When you came into town?

Our axes can do nothing there,

To strike the timber down,

The women have protested us,

And they're of some reserve,

They'd even pass the winter there,

If they abided fur,"

(the magician)

"I saw the women, 'pon the hill,

They were of some reserve,

But I, who have no reservation,

Just might have the cure!"

The two slouched there in complot,

And they drained upon their beers,

Till the foreman saw the tramp's design,

And met their glasses near!

They stepped up to the sunny hill,

Smiling with design,

The women sneered at their approach,

Thinking them benign,

They left off from their chanting,

Hurling such insult,

But neither of the gentlemen,

Saw reason they should halt,

Still the ladies discovered,

Every hovering fault,

And mocked upon the tramp's array,

To yield their tongue some salt,

They called the tramp a dandy,

For the shine upon his hat,

His cape was like a dress, they said,

But he said nothing back,

He set his case upon the grass,

And gave them such a pause,

He brandished in a wobbly arch,

His fine magician's saw!

Now if within a ledger,

There was ever, in this, conflict,

There was no lawyer present there,

To stop this magic trick!

The women were divided,

But they were not harmed a bit,

For ev'ry woman halved that day,

Was after made to fit!

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