written after several ineffectual efforts to drive roaches away.
“i left my home some prey to track,
and promised my loved ones i soon would come back;
but when i returned—alack! alack!
i looked in vain for the well-known crack.”
thus spake a poor roach as he wandered alone,
and sad was his face, and mournful his tone;
for he thought on the home he never should see,
on mrs. roach and his loved family.
he remembered with grief that their larder was bare,
and young roaches he knew could not live upon air.
ah! do you human beings think what you’re about
when you fill up the cracks, and the old roaches out?
and poor mrs. roach sat sobbing at home,
dreading that to her sposa some evil had come,
and the poor little young ones lay tumbling about,
grieving much for their father who stayed so long out.
“at last,” quoth the eldest, “dear mother, i’ll go
and find if i can what keeps father so”—
and he started to go as he aye went before,
but gone was the crack they had used for a door!
alas, human beings! do you know how you sin,
when you fill up the cracks, and the young roaches in?
oh! then there was wailing within that dark hole,
for their grief was too deep to be under control,—
said poor mrs. roach, “a widow i’ll be,
and who will provide for my dear family?”
cheer up, little group! oh grieve not so sore!
if you’ll wait but a little there is comfort in store.
in the midst of their wailing a scraping they hear,
and lo! in their midst doth their sire appear.
“cheer up, my dear wife, and ye children small,
for see, i have eaten my way through the wall!”
moral.
good people, ’tis vain for you to stop up the holes,
for we roaches have instinct, if we have not got souls.
here we’ve long been at home, and here we’ll remain,
and your phosphorus, your elder, and wafers, are vain.
you may give up your efforts, your trouble and pother,
for when driven from one place, we will go to another:
if we weary your patience, your best plan, beyond doubt,
will be to move off, ere we know that you’re out.
margaret r--.