Classic Poem

[First Version]

She stayed over after
the summer people had gone
at her little shack
on the shore, an old woman

impossible to get on with
unless you left her alone
with her things — among them
the young grandson, nineteen

whom she had raised.
He endured her because
he was too lazy to work
too lazy to think and

had a soft spot for her
in his bright heart, also a
moustache, a girl, bed
and board out of the old lady

the sea before him
and a ukulele — The two
had remained on and on
into the cold weather.

Thanksgiving day
after the heavy dinner
at a good neighbor's table
Death touched the old lady

in her head — Home she must
go leaning heavily on the
boy who put her to bed and
gave her what she wanted —

water and Mother Eddy's
Science and Health and
forgot her for other things.
But she began to rave in the night.

In the morning after frying
an egg for her
he combed his whiskers
picked his pimples

and got busy with
a telegram for help —
Gimme something to eat
Gimme something to eat

I'm starving
they're starving me
was all I got out of
the dazed old woman

There were some dirty plates
and a glass of milk
beside her on a small table
near her stinking bed

Wrinkled and nearly blind
she lay and snored
rousing to cry
with anger in her tones —

They're starving me —
You won't move me
I'm all right — I won't go
to the hospital. No, no, no

Give me something to eat! —
Let me take you
to the hospital, I said,
and after you are well

you can do as you please —
She smiled her old smile:
Yes, you do what you please
first then I can do what I please —

Oh, oh, oh, she cried
as the ambulance men lifted her
to their stretcher on the floor —
Is this what you call

making me comfortable? —
Now her mind was clear
Oh you think you're awfully
smart, you young people,

she said to us, but I'll tell
you you don't know
anything — Then we started.
On the way

we passed a long row
of elms, she looked
a long while out of the
ambulance window and said —

What are all those
fuzzy looking things out there?
Trees? Well, I'm
tired of them.