FOURTEENTH CATERWAUL
When Mallory worked in the shops
He drank up the wages he earned.
Now that he’s out of a job
He’s docile and kind to his wife
And dawdles the baby all day.
Old Horton used to say that Mallory
Was a good mechanic and a bad father.
Thus do critics fall out—Now that Old Horton
Is dead
He could not reverse his opinion
Nor the marble slab on his grave.
Joe Mallory was always Jack’s chum; so Jack got after
His friends.... Now he’s delighted and proud
For he found Mallory a job
Which Mallory thoroughly liked and took
For the price of giving up drink.
FIFTEENTH CATERWAUL
Edith was reading the paper
Breakfasting on the couch
At the foot of which I sat.
Her face was as pale as a ghost.... She read
Something twice out loud:
“James Brough in the Bankruptcy Court.
Squandered his fortune on women;
Many society girls in his net.”
She fainted just as her mother came in; so I
Quietly left the room....
And yet there is now a law
That the lamps of motors be dimmed!
