EMPIRE BUILDING
Your sweated people toiled to make you great,
Swept out your store and laboured long and late.
Their pay was poor, their faces lined with care,
Of all good things you took the lion's share.
In foreign lands, half naked, they slaved on
To gather gold to heap your plate upon;
You'd swagger past, proud of their dull amaze,
In Royal purple, eager for all praise.
Oh, long ago, when you were yet a boy,
You always took the other children's toy;
And you were best at playing games of bluff,
And no one liked you, John; your ways were rough.
I well remember Kate, who lived next door,
Her pretty eyes and snowy pinafore,
Which oft you would mud-spatter and then call:
“Oh, see the dirty girl,” to one and all.
A jealous and a greedy boy you were,
And loved to make a spectacle of her,
Because she never liked you, John, since you
To her sweet garden forced your rough way through.
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