THEY would have lynched me Had I not been secretly hurried away To the jail at Peoria. And yet I was going peacefully home, Carrying my jug, a little drunk, When Logan, the marshal, halted me, Called me a drunken hound and shook me, And, when I cursed him for it, struck me With that Prohibition loaded cane -- All this before I shot him. They would have hanged me except for this: My lawyer, Kinsey Keene, was helping to land Old Thomas Rhodes for wrecking the bank, And the judge was a friend of Rhodes And wanted him to escape, And Kinsey offered to quit on Rhodes For fourteen years for me. And the bargain was made. I served my time And learned to read and write. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ELEGY IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD by GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON MISS KILMANSEGG AND HER PRECIOUS LEG: HER DEATH by THOMAS HOOD SCUM O' THE EARTH' by ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER IN THE WATER by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS OH, MOTHER DEAR! by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS CALMNESS OF THE SUBLIME by PHILIP JAMES BAILEY |