Wit and Humor of America, The Vol 03

<h2><SPAN name="THE_AUTO_RUBAIYAT5" id="THE_AUTO_RUBAIYAT5"></SPAN>THE AUTO RUBAIYAT<SPAN name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</SPAN></h2> <h3>BY REGINALD WRIGHT KAUFFMAN</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Move!&mdash;Or the Devil Red who puts to flight<br/></span> <span class="i0">Whate'er's before him, to the Left or Right,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Will toss you high as Heaven when he strikes<br/></span> <span class="i0">Your poor clay carcass with his master-might!<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">As the Cock crows the "Fiends" who stand before<br/></span> <span class="i0">The Starting-Point, amid the Stream's wild roar,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Shake hands, make wills, and duly are confess'd,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Lest, once departed, they return no more.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">For whether towards Madrid or Washington,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Whether by steam or gasoline they run,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Pedestrians keep getting in their way,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Chauffeurs are being slaughtered one by one.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">A new Fool's every minute born, you say;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Yes, but where speeds the Fool of Yesterday?<br/></span> <span class="i2">Beneath the Road he sleeps, the Autos roar<br/></span> <span class="i0">Close o'er his head, but can not thrill his clay.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Well, let him sleep! For what have ye to do<br/></span> <span class="i0">With him, who this or Anything pursue<br/></span> <span class="i2">So it take swiftness?&mdash;Let the Children scream,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Or Constables shout after&mdash;heed not you.<br/></span> <span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_547" id="Page_547"></SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Oh ye who anti-auto laws would make<br/></span> <span class="i0">And still insist upon the silly brake,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Get in, and try a spin, and then you'll see<br/></span> <span class="i0">How many fines you will impose&mdash;and take!<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Ah, my Beloved, fill the Tank that cheers,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Nor heed the Law's rebuke, the Rabble's tears,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Quick! For To-morrow you and I may be<br/></span> <span class="i0">Ourselves with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">A pair of Goggles and a Cap, I trow,<br/></span> <span class="i0">A Stench, a Roar, and my Machine and Thou<br/></span> <span class="i2">Beside me, going ninety miles an hour&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Oh, Turnpike-road were Paradise enow!<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Ah, Love, could we successfully conspire<br/></span> <span class="i0">Against this sorry World for our desire,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Would we not shatter it to bits without<br/></span> <span class="i0">So much of damage as a busted tire?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">With Gasoline my fading Life provide,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And wash my Body in it when I've died,<br/></span> <span class="i2">And lay me, shrouded in my Cap and Cape,<br/></span> <span class="i0">By some not Autoless new Speedway's side.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Yon "Devil" that goes pricking o'er the Plain,<br/></span> <span class="i0">How oft hereafter will she go again!<br/></span> <span class="i2">How oft hereafter will she seek her prey?<br/></span> <span class="i0">But seek, alas, for one of us in vain!<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">And when, like her, O Love, you come to take<br/></span> <span class="i0">Your morning spin for Appetite's sweet sake,<br/></span> <span class="i2">And pass the spot where I lay buried, then,<br/></span> <span class="i0">In memory of me, fling wide the Brake!<br/></span> <span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_548" id="Page_548"></SPAN></span></div> </div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />