E.E. Cummings: nobody loses all the time

E.E. Cummings

(1894 – 1962)

nobody loses all the time

 

nobody loses all the time

i had an uncle named

Sol who was a born failure and

nearly everybody said he should have gone

into vaudeville perhaps because my Uncle Sol could

sing McCann He Was A Diver on Xmas Eve like Hell Itself which

may or may not account for the fact that my Uncle

 

Sol indulged in that possibly most inexcusable

of all to use a highfalootin phrase

luxuries that is or to

wit farming and be

it needlessly

added

 

my Uncle Sol’s farm

failed because the chickens

ate the vegetables so

my Uncle Sol had a

chicken farm till the

skunks ate the chickens when

 

my Uncle Sol

had a skunk farm but

the skunks caught cold and

died so

my Uncle Sol imitated the

skunks in a subtle manner

 

or by drowning himself in the watertank

but somebody who’d given my Unde Sol a Victor

Victrola and records while he lived presented to

him upon the auspicious occasion of his decease a

scrumptious not to mention splendiferous funeral with

tall boys in black gloves and flowers and everything and

 

i remember we all cried like the Missouri

when my Uncle Sol’s coffin lurched because

somebody pressed a button

(and down went

my Uncle

Sol

 

and started a worm farm)

 

Edward Estlin Cummings

kempis.nl poetry magazine

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