Walter SimmonsMy parents thought that I would beAs great as Edison or greater:For as a boy I made balloonsAnd wondrous kites and toys with clocksAnd little engines with tracks to run onAnd telephones of cans and thread.I played the cornet and painted pictures,Modeled in clay and took the partOf the villain in the “Octoroon.”But then at twenty-one I marriedAnd had to live, and so, to liveI learned the trade of making watchesAnd kept the jewelry store on the square,Thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking,—Not of business, but of the engineI studied the calculus to build.And all Spoon River watched and waitedTo see it work, but it never worked.And a few kind souls believed my geniusWas somehow hampered by the store.It wasn’t true.The truth was this:I did not have the brains.
My parents thought that I would beAs great as Edison or greater:For as a boy I made balloonsAnd wondrous kites and toys with clocksAnd little engines with tracks to run onAnd telephones of cans and thread.I played the cornet and painted pictures,Modeled in clay and took the partOf the villain in the “Octoroon.”But then at twenty-one I marriedAnd had to live, and so, to liveI learned the trade of making watchesAnd kept the jewelry store on the square,Thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking,—Not of business, but of the engineI studied the calculus to build.And all Spoon River watched and waitedTo see it work, but it never worked.And a few kind souls believed my geniusWas somehow hampered by the store.It wasn’t true.The truth was this:I did not have the brains.