Dreams

Dreams.
176.8

If the iceman should come to me some day,
While weighing out a plece at my back door,
And, dropping it upon the porch, should say:
“It was so cold last year and year before,
The crop is long and we have cut the price”-
If he should just say that and lay the ice
On my back step and then drive on-but hush!
Such dreams as this are only silly gush.

Or if the butcher, wrapping up my steak,
Should say: “You know, the corn crop was so vast,
-And feed so cheap, we’re able now to make
A slight reduction in the price at last”
I say, if he should tell me that and take
Two cents a pound from last week’s price of steak,
I wonder if the shock-but pshaw! why spare
The time to build such castles in the air?”

Or if the baker, doling out my bread,
Should put a penny back into my hand,
And say: “The world will be more cheaply fed,
Since there is a large wheat crop in the land”-
I say, if he should voluntarily Return a single penny unto me,
I wonder if I’d be-but, Heart, be still;
There is no possibility he will!

Or if my tailor, deftly sizing me
For a new suit, should say: “You know that sheep
Are multiplying fast and wool will be
In cloth upon the market very cheap”-
I say, if he should just say that and take
Five dollars from the price-well, then, I’d wake
Right up and rub my sleepy eyes and laugh,
To think of tailors giving me such chaff.

I know that these are merely dreams – that ice
And meat and bread are going up-that crop
Or weather will do naught but raise the price:
There is no likelihood of any drop;
But my employer tells me he will give
Me higher wage-it costs so much to live-
So now I do not need to skimp and scratch-
My pipe is out! Has any one a match?
-J. W.Foley