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Enoch Dunlap

Topics: classic

How many times, during the twenty years         I was your leader, friends of Spoon River,         Did you neglect the convention and caucus,         And leave the burden on my hands         Of guarding and saving the people's cause? -         Sometimes because you were ill;         Or your grandmother was ill;         Or you drank too much and fell asleep;         Or else you said: "He is our leader,         All will be well; he fights for us;         We have nothing to do but follow."         But oh, how you cursed me when I fell,         And cursed me, saying I had betrayed you,         In leaving the caucus room for a moment,         When the people's enemies, there assembled,         Waited and watched for a chance to destroy         The Sacred Rights of the People.         You common rabble! I left the caucus         To go to the urinal.

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"How many times, during the twenty years..."

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