IMAGINATION
Oncet, when I was a gret big man, I got mad at the way
Ol' nurses bossed the childruns an' so I wouldn't stay;
I jest got up and pushed my house right over—yes, I did;
An' then I turned the streets all round, and runned away and hid!
When I come back, my childruns was cryin' awful loud,
Fer nobody knowed wher they lived, an' there was such a crowd.
I says, "Now, folks must shet their eyes—don't open them a crack!"—
An' then I straightened out the streets, an' put the houses back.
'N oncet I was a neluphant, as big as all outdoors,
'N every time I turned around it shook the roofs and floors;
I walked down to the river, and I drunk it up—All up,
Jest like it was some cambric tea in my ol' silver cup.
An' when the people come fer me, I jest set down, kerplunk!
An' squashed 'em flat—an' picked them up—an' packed 'em in my trunk!
'N then I twist my trunk off, an' throwed it all away—
You better let me go, Louise—I might do that to-day!
You won't? All right—you'd better did, for one time long ago,
Before I gotter be a boy, I was a bear—oh, no—
I was a snake—a yaller snake, an' I was ten miles long,
'N all I et was nurse girls—yes, I did, although 'twas wrong.
That was a million years ago, but something—inside me—
Tells me I'm goin' to be a snake again—jest watch and see!
You don't believe a word I say? Well, I don't care—I do—
How could I 'member all these things, unlessen they was true?