POETRY.

Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

POETRY.

+ THE SKATES. [after c. a foe's "the brills."] Hear the thunder of the skates — Roller skatea ! How my floul so supersensitive their row infernal hates ! When I'm half a mile from the door Comes the deaf'ning, maddening rolling Of those wheels upon the floorThat naddening, monotonous, reverberating roar Of the skates ! Hear the whirring and the whizzing Of tho skates. Mark the unaccustomed antics, Struggles ludicrously frantic, As each figure there gyrates. In a human panorama, 'Hid a eacophojiic clamour, Men and women, girls and boys, Mnke a horrid, hideous noise, Like a huge titanic hammer That some Hercules employs. Oh, those skates ! See the skater on thoso wheels, How he reels. Oh ! see the look of agony his countenance reveals, As he knows and he feels That his toes and his heels Are quite beyoud controlling "When he once commences rolling On those wheels. They are either brass or wooden, And they'll let him down so sudden' On his seat That he'll wonder, wonder, wonder, At the awful clap of thunder When the floor rose up from beneath his feet. Hear the rumbling, see the tumbling On the skates. How each joist and beam and rafter Oscillates. Here the mocking sound of laughter That each downfall follows after, And all the tender feelings of the victim lacerates ; For the public sitting there, With expectant, eager air, Diabolically waits till the tyro on the skates - Tumbles down Like a stone, With a frown and a groan, And then rising in confusion, Madly rubs each sore contusion, Swearing ekating's a delusion And a snare. There's the expert on his gliding, Skimming skates. See him heading, swaying, leaning, Like a ship he goes careening ; Doing in and outside edges, drawing sinuous figure eights. Swiftly nearing Disappearing, Verging, veering, deftly steering, -He pauses not a moment, and he never hesitates. But flies faster and faster, For he's evidently master Of the skatea. See them thunder, glide and blunder On the skates. How their dignity eaoh tumble irritates. How they roll, roll, roll, How they clash, collide, and clink, Till they agonise my soul By their clatter at the rink. Bound and round and round again, In a sort of endless chain — A chain of human beings where each skatei forms a link. He is wise who hesitates Ere he rashly tempts the Fates By trusting his anatomy on those deceptive skates At the rink. So they ceaselessly continue On the skates With a vigour no catastrophe abates. Circuitously wheeling in an intertwining scroll, So they 1011, roll, roll, And the tumblers pay the toll On a journey that's monotonous, and meaningless and droll, On a gyrating journey that no object has nor goal ; But because it is the fashion they must all insanely roll On the running, rumbling, risky Holler skates.