It was just like everything else in life:Something outside myself drew me down,My own strength never failed me.Why, there was the time I earned the moneyWith which to go away to school,And my father suddenly needed helpAnd I had to give him all of it.Just so it went till I ended upA man-of-all-work in Spoon River.Thus when I got the water-tower cleaned,And they hauled me up the seventy feet,I unhooked the rope from my waist,And laughingly flung my giant armsOver the smooth steel lips of the top of the tower—But they slipped from the treacherous slime,And down, down, down, I plungedThrough bellowing darkness!
Spoon River Anthology · Edgar Lee Masters