After I got religion and steadied down They gave me a job in the canning works, And every morning I had to fill The tank in the yard with gasoline, That fed the blow-fires in the sheds To heat the soldering irons. And I mounted a rickety ladder to do it, Carrying buckets full of the stuff. One morning, as I stood there pouring, The air grew still and seemed to heave, And I shot up as the tank exploded, And down I came with both legs broken, And my eyes burned crisp as a couple of eggs. For someone left a blow - fire going, And something sucked the flame in the tank. The Circuit Judge said whoever did it Was a fellow-servant of mine, and so Old Rhodes' son didn't have to pay me. And I sat on the witness stand as blind As lack the Fiddler, saying over and over, "I didn't know him at all." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VICTOR GALBRAITH by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW ON THE 'VITA NUOVA' OF DANTE by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI LITTLE BELL by THOMAS WESTWOOD PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 77. AL-MUTAHALI by EDWIN ARNOLD THE LAST MAN: MIDNIGHT HYMN by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |