An Eccentric
Be virtuous and you will be eccentric-Mark Twain
Yes, she was a countess, she said,
but being of a mind concise and thrifty
added 'that, and a dollar fifty
will get you on the subway-'
A long time ago, surely.
She rode to harriers
not like ladies did, side-saddle,
she said, but properly astraddle,
following the yelping, fanned-out pack
over the hills and back.
Later she studied at Trinity
getting a 'dispensation'
becoming a gynecologist-obstetrician.
'Leave from the crown'? I frowned, expectantly,
'No, from the bishop', she replied.
But she never practiced-
first there was the war; later the AMA
back home, dealt her the no-way.
And if you didn't ask her she would plainly say
'So I spent my life in marine-salvage.'
And she did. Comfortable with card-readers,
superstitious as practical,
once at dinner she told me she'd seen Michael
the Archangel behind a church choir stall. I just kept eating.
What he was doing there I didn't ask.
poem by Morgan Michaels
Added by Poetry Lover
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