Poems (Kennedy)/The Sparking Plug
THE SPARKING PLUG
"PRAY, tell me—what IS a sparking plug?"
Asked the girl with the soft-blue eyes—
And anybody'd thought that a look like that
Would have put that young man "wise"
But he drew on his gloves, and in technical terms—
The kind that suggest scientifical germs—
Explained that it was a piece of bent wire
That passed through an insulated bar,
When you turned the wheel, it sent word to the "works,"
And that's how you "started up the car."
Asked the girl with the soft-blue eyes—
And anybody'd thought that a look like that
Would have put that young man "wise"
But he drew on his gloves, and in technical terms—
The kind that suggest scientifical germs—
Explained that it was a piece of bent wire
That passed through an insulated bar,
When you turned the wheel, it sent word to the "works,"
And that's how you "started up the car."
"Oh!"
But Uncle Jack said, as he shut one eye
In a dear little, queer little wink
That turned the cheek of that blue-eyed girl
The loveliest sea-shell pink
"That may be true, but when I was young
And the spring came round and the love-birds sung,
And I went riding down shady lanes
With the prettiest girl in the land,
A 'sparking plug'?—Huh? 'twas any old nag
You could drive with just one hand."
But Uncle Jack said, as he shut one eye
In a dear little, queer little wink
That turned the cheek of that blue-eyed girl
The loveliest sea-shell pink
"That may be true, but when I was young
And the spring came round and the love-birds sung,
And I went riding down shady lanes
With the prettiest girl in the land,
A 'sparking plug'?—Huh? 'twas any old nag
You could drive with just one hand."