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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


RUBBER TIRES by WALT MASON

First Line: SOME SOOTHING BALM THE SOUL REQUIRES, WHEN
Last Line: "AS THEY LEAVE, ON LEARNING BENT, THEY WHISPER, ""WHAT A SINFUL GENT!"
Subject(s): AUTOMOBILES - SERVICE STATIONS; LABOR & LABORERS; YOUTH; GASOLINE STATIONS; FILLING STATIONS; AUTOMOBILE REPAIR SHOPS; WORK; WORKERS;

SOME soothing balm the soul requires, when one must fuss with rubber tires. I am

a highly moral man; I guard my tongue the best I can; and if, perchance, I cuss

a streak, remorse lambasts me for a week. A model I would gladly be, to growing

youth and infancy, and ere I got a motor car, my fame for virtue traveled far.
But often now I may be seen, all bathed in sweat and gasoline, and spotted o'er

with rancid grease, dispensing words that break the peace. I jack my car up with

my lyre, and try to patch a busted tire, and while I labor in the ditch, I'm
laughed at by the idle rich, who whiz along in pomp and state, and jeer the more

unlucky skate. And as I toil with wrench and crank, I keep on saying, "Blinky
blank," and children toddling on their way give ear to smoky things I say, and
as they leave, on learning bent, they whisper, "What a sinful gent!"



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