Don’t Even Try!

Don’t even try to buy me off, because friend, it just won’t be,
I learned myself, so long ago, to think about what I see.

There was a job in a “political town” that I needed very much
But too soon I learned that they only played with a politician’s touch.

“You see,” I was told, by the boss who-would-be my very own, it seemed,
“this is how we play our game,” and I thought, “this HAS to be a dream!”

In very short words, as I was told, that I shouldn’t bite the hand
Of those who would feed my own sweet souls; that I must learn to bend.

Me bend? No way! For if they thought that they could try to buy
A vote from me, well my friend, we just wouldn’t see eye to eye.

So it went, a discourse I was given, before I would be hired,
And what did I really have to lose? Why, they couldn’t fire

A little gal who would stand up strong, for what did I have to lose?
Only my own legal rights, and not voting for whom I would choose!

So I went ahead and listened to spiel, not believing what I had heard,
And then in a quiet, compassionate voice, I spoke my own sweet words.

“What if I found a store who sold carpets that I might own?
Are you telling me I have to buy from your man, to design my home?”

“Oh, yes”, the man in his chair just smiled, his relief was oh, so great,
That I had learned his lesson clean, and wouldn’t spoil his slate.

But I continued, true to me, “But what if I were to learn,
That I could get me what I need, if I but a corner turned,

“And found me what I needed most, a Better Deal, it would seem…”
and I saw that sorry smile of his, foiled by my own mind’s gleam.

“You see, for me, I don’t need you to tell me where to go,
so if that wraps this interview, then it’s best that you should know,

“You won’t direct me in this way, I’ll take up my own mind,
and beg you different, if this job, would relegate its own design,

“To tell me how I will or not, choose where I might buy
my own collections for my soul, no Sir, do not even try.”

I think it was with some reluctance that he hired me anyway…
Because who needed a little smart mouth to repeat what she’d heard that day?

[This message has been edited by Sunshine (08-29-2004 09:13 PM).]

Come read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling
And banish the thoughts of day.
Longfellow