Love Sonnets of an Office Boy (Sonnet 20)

XX

LAST night, when she'd got on her coat and hat

And felt her dress behind and then her hair,

To see if everything was all right there,

She stopped and said: "Well, now just look at that!"

And then put out one foot a little bit,

And says: "Ain't that provokin'? I declare,

The string's untied!" She put it on a chair,

A-motionin' for me to fasten it.

So then that long-legged clerk he pushed me back

And grabbed the shoe-strings that were hangin' down--

I wish I was the strongest man in town--

Oh, wouldn't I of let him have a whack!

And I'd of kicked him so blamed hard I'll bet

He'd wonder what he might come down on yet.