ALONG the street I drive my car, my rate of speed is safe and slow. I pull up where the children are, and give pedestrians a show. Some day pedestrians will be, by statute, from our highways cast, for any candid man must see that they're a nuisance, first and last. But since they are permitted here, in spite of motorists' appeals, I hold it wise my car to steer so they won't get beneath the wheels. I watch the street where'er I go, and dodge all live stock gone astray, and toot my horn that men may know my juggernaut is on the way. The road rules I have all by heart—I learned the whole blamed list, complete, and no man ever sees my cart upon the wrong side of the street. And while I exercise such care, while modestly my motor hums, along the teeming thoroughfare some badly locoed speed fan comes. He knocks the sawdust from some gent who hasn't time to climb a tree, and then, without or with intent, he slams his car right into me. I say, when from the dismal wreck I climb, and realize the worst, "The man who gets it in the neck, is he who swears by Safety First!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WESTERN CIVILIZATION by JAMES GALVIN TUNICA PALLIO PROPRIOR by MARIANNE MOORE THE TRAVELLER AT THE SOURCE OF THE NILE by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS CYNTHIADES: TO CYNTHIA ON CONCEALMENT OF HER BEAUTY by FRANCIS KYNASTON VALENTINES TO MY MOTHER: 1876 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI SOLOMON SCHECHTER by ALTER ABELSON |