Classic Poem

If I weren't what I am,
if I hadn't been born what I was,
I wouldn't be what I am—
that is—
I'd have a decent job downtown
with a stipend of respectable proportions—
I'd have a Sunday suit as well as a week-day,
I wouldn't be looking so shabby,
and my wife wouldn't eye me so,
I feel like a roach when she eyes me so—
that is—
if she weren't what she is,
if she hadn't been born what she was,
she wouldn't be what she is—
she wouldn't have a Sunday as well as a week-day,
and I wouldn't eye her so,
she turns like a thief when I eye her so—
that is—
if my mother and father had had
more discrimination in their choice of each other—
if her mother and father had had
more discrimination in their choice of each other—
no, that is—
if Nature had had more discrimination with
my mother and father and her mother and father,
she wouldn't have asked me to go to the Browns,
today being Sunday,
or I'd surely have gone to the Browns,
today being Sunday,
and I with a Sunday suit,
I with a decent job downtown,
I with a respectable stipend—
yes, that is—
I wouldn't be sitting here
and she wouldn't be sitting there,
she telling the Browns about it,
and I reading Darwin—
what can he tell me about it?