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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


PROPHETS'S AT HOME DAY by ANTHONY STEELE

First Line: THAT'S JOSEPH: HE'S OUR JOINER HERE, YOU KNOW
Last Line: ABOUT A WOMAN.

'THAT'S Joseph: he's our joiner here, you know,
"Joiner to Nazareth."
That's a fine title, eh? He thinks it so;
Don't waste your breath.
He's not a bad sort really -- it's his son
We can't abide:
I never yet on earth saw such a one
For sinful pride.
Just a poor beggar boy: you understand?
Yet he aspires
To proselytising up and down the land --
Oh! these Messiahs!
You'll say that he's a fool or mad or both,
Bees in his bonnet!
Well, there's his parents, beggared by his sloth,
Curses upon it!
And worse, he's got a following of sorts, --
Oh! just a rabble,
Cheap fishermen, the riff-raff of the ports,
They love his babble.
And his poor mother! well they say you know --
But there! that's common.' --
So ran the cackle centuries ago
About a woman.



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