Page 25 - Poetry-Family

Absence of Mind

[Scene: A sleeping-car. An absent-minded passenger suddenly
arises from his seat and looks aimlessly around him.]

“A heavy weight is on my mind!
I know I’ve left something behind!
It cannot be the brazen check,
For trunks which baggage-masters wreck,
For here it is! My hat-box? No!
It safely rests the seat below!
It must be, then, my new umbrella,
My wife will taunt me when I tell her,
‘Your fifteenth since the glad New Year!’
Why, bless me, no! How very queer!
‘Tis in the rack there, plain in sight!
My purse and ticket are all right!
What fancies crowd an addled head;
There’s naught amiss! I’ll go to bed.”

Full peacefully he sank to rest,
If snores a peaceful sleep attest.
A tuneful hour had scarce slipped by,
When loud uprose an anguished cry
A crazed man’s moan of lamentation—
“I’ve left the baby at the station!”

—(Century Magazine, 1882)

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