A Tribute

Hand Spanker to the World
Tool User, Stacker of Sting,
Player of Roles and the Nation’s Bottom Handler
Stormy, husky, brawling,
Spanker of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have been your painted woman under the gas lamps luring the farm boy.

They tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On my cheeks and legs I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who would sneer and say to them:

Come and show me another Spanker with lifted head singing
so proud alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Barehanded,
Strapping,
Paddling,
Caning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding.

Bragging and laughing that under his palm is the pulse.

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
Youth, half naked, sweating, proud to be Hand
Spanker, Tool User, Stacker of Sting, Player of Roles
and Bottom Handler to the Nation.

　
Parody of "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg, 1916