Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/152

Were I to you as the boss employing and paying
you, would that satisfy you?

6. The learned, virtuous, benevolent, and the usual
terms,
A man like me, and never the usual terms.

7. Neither a servant nor a master am I,
I take no sooner a large price than a small price—
I will have my own, whoever enjoys me,
I will be even with you, and you shall be even
with me.

8. If you stand at work in a shop, I stand as nigh as
the nighest in the same shop,
If you bestow gifts on your brother or dearest friend,
I demand as good as your brother or dearest
friend,
If your lover, husband, wife, is welcome by day or
night, I must be personally as welcome,
If you become degraded, criminal, ill, then I become
so for your sake,
If you remember your foolish and outlawed deeds, do
you think I cannot remember my own foolish
and outlawed deeds? plenty of them;
If you carouse at the table, I carouse at the opposite
side of the table,
If you meet some stranger in the streets, and love
him or her, do I not often meet strangers in the
street, and love them?
If you see a good deal remarkable in me, I see just
as much, perhaps more, in you.