Jack McGuire (by Edgar Lee Masters)
Jack McGuire
by Edgar Lee Masters
from Spoon River Anthology [1915]
They would have lynched me
Had I not been secretly hurried away
To the jail at Peoria.
And yet I was going peacefully home,
Carrying my jug, a little drunk,
When Logan, the marshal, halted me,
Called me a drunken hound and shook me,
And, when I cursed him for it, struck me
With that Prohibition loaded cane—
All this before I shot him.
They would have hanged me except for this:
My lawyer, Kinsey Keene, was helping to land
Old Thomas Rhodes for wrecking the bank,
And the judge was a friend of Rhodes
And wanted him to escape,
And Kinsey offered to quit on Rhodes
For fourteen years for me.
And the bargain was made. I served my time
And learned to read and write.
Posted by Jesus Crisis at 12/1/2009 9:21 PM 
Categories: Masters (Edgar Lee),Poetry,1900s,American
Tags: Spoon River Anthology 1915 Edgar Lee Masters American Poetry American Literature
Categories: Masters (Edgar Lee),Poetry,1900s,American
Tags: Spoon River Anthology 1915 Edgar Lee Masters American Poetry American Literature
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