A BUBBLE
by: Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
- RS.
Mehitable Marcia Moore
- Was a dame of superior mind,
- With a gown which, modestly fitting before,
- Was greatly puffed up behind.
-
- The bustle she wore was ingeniously planned
- With an inspiration bright:
- It magnified seven diameters and
- Was remarkably nice and light.
-
- It was made of rubber and edged with lace
- And riveted all with brass,
- And the whole immense interior space
- Inflated with hydrogen gas.
-
- The ladies all said when she hove in view
- Like the round and rising moon:
- "She's a stuck up thing!" which was partly true,
- And men called her the Captive Balloon.
-
- To Manhattan Beach for a bath one day
- She went and she said: "O dear!
- If I leave of this what will people say?
- I shall look so uncommonly queer!"
-
- So a costume she had accordingly made
- To take it all nicely in,
- And when she appeared in that suit arrayed,
- She was greeted with many a grin.
-
- Proudly and happily looking around,
- She waded out into the wet;
- But the water was very, very profound,
- And her feet and her forehead met!
-
- As her bubble drifted away from the shore,
- On the glassy billows borne,
- All cried: "Why, where is Mehitable Moore?
- I saw her go in, I'll be sworn!"
-
- Then the bulb it swelled as the sun grew hot,
- Till it burst with a sullen roar,
- And the sea like oil closed over the spot--
- Farewell, O Mehitable Moore!
"A Bubble" is reprinted
from The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce Vol. IV: Shapes
of Clay. Ambrose Bierce. New York: Neale Publishing Company,
1910. |
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