My friends never fail any ladder to scale
Where Success is attractively rosy;
But I mke the crack, as I crawl and slide back:
It’s lonesome down here , but it’s cozy!
Oh, I wonder, sometimes, as I rest between climbs,
What it’s like there with Jonesy and Smitty–
But I like a view that distence adds to,
And the heights from down here are so pretty!
Though I’m broken and bent, I am (perforce) content
With the dictum that I’ll never make it.
(Of course, if Success ever says to me, “Yes,”
More than likely I’ll break down and take it)
If, though, kind sirs, my philosophy stirs,
In the meantime, your own indignation,
Till the day I “arrive”, please do not deprive
A failure* of his consolation!
*Success or not, don’t let author spoof you: he was paid for this verse (at least) at Uncle Sam’s hourly rate – -every blarsted word of it!
by Ray Romine Saturday, October 12, 1946
