SHINGLE-SHORT
You kind o’ wanted one my sort?
—Right, God! I’ll be Your shingle-short!
Why, save us! Now I’ve slew’d my eye,
An’ found You standin’ steady by,
Holdin’ Your Finger in the pie,
Things is a-turnin’ a traverse!
’Tain’t Curses, grinnin’ back o’ Good,
That’s now a-bossin’ o’ the show—
Too seeable to stay unseen—
It’s Goodness, back of every Curse,
A-smilin’ sunny an’ serene!
Why....this rate, nothin’s Right-down Wrong?
An’ as for somethin’ Right-down Right....
Think the whole jolly world ’ll do?
For that’s the contrack!—I’ll allow,
Scaffoldin’-kind o’ Right just now,
But clean Right’s what it’s comin’ to!
Bound to come right, because it’s Yours.
—An’ one thing’s Right already,—YOU!
Ay! You ain’t shingle-short! You’re whole!
You toe the mark, You touch the goal,
Each time. Oh! Ain’t it a relief?
Ain’t it a home, like, to the soul?
Past all imperfecks under sun,
Overdone, underdone, undone,
Cockled, lopsided, leaky, odd,
So-So, an’ Very-Near-Not-Quite,—
There is one Somethin’ that’s A.1.!
Oh, bless You, God, for bein’ GOD!—
Full, out-an’-out, entire, clean, quite,
An’ everlastin’—all All-Right!
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