Annuitant

Oh I am neither rich nor poor,
No worker I dispoil;
Yet I am glad to be secure
From servitude and toil.
For with my lifelong savings I
Have bought annuity;
And so unto the day I die
I'll have my toast and tea.

When on the hob the kettle sings
I'll make an amber brew,
And crunch my toast and think of things
I do not have to do.
In dressing-gown and deep arm-chair
I'll give the fire a poke;
Then worlds away from cark and care
I'll smoke and smoke and smoke.

For I believe the very best
Of Being is the last;
And I will crown with silver zest
My patience in the past.
Since compensation is the law
Of life it's up to me
To round the century and draw
My Life Annuity.

More poems by Robert Service

Mistinguette

He was my one and only love; / My world was mirror for his face.

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Benjamin Franklin

Franklin fathered bastards fourteen, / (So I read in the New Yorker);

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My Future

Let's make him a sailor, said Father, / And he will adventure the sea.

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Four-Foot Shelf

'Come, see,' said he, 'my four-foot shelf, / A forty volume row;

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