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Theodore Roethke - The Saginaw Song
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In Saginaw, in Saginaw, 
   The wind blows up your feet, 
When the ladies’ guild puts on a feed, 
   There’s beans on every plate, 
And if you eat more than you should, 
   Destruction is complete. 


Out Hemlock Way there is a stream 
   That some have called Swan Creek; 
The turtles have bloodsucker sores, 
   And mossy filthy feet; 
The bottoms of migrating ducks 
   Come off it much less neat. 


In Saginaw, in Saginaw, 
   Bartenders think no ill; 
But they’ve ways of indicating when 
   You are not acting well: 
They throw you through the front plate glass 
   And then send you the bill. 


The Morleys and the Burrows are 
   The aristocracy; 
A likely thing for they’re no worse 
   Than the likes of you or me,— 
A picture window’s one you can’t 
   Raise up when you would pee. 


In Shaginaw, in Shaginaw 
   I went to Shunday Shule; 
The only thing I ever learned 
   Was called the Golden Rhule,— 
But that’s enough for any man 
   What’s not a proper fool. 


I took the pledge cards on my bike; 
   I helped out with the books; 
The stingy members when they signed 
   Made with their stingy looks,— 
The largest contributions came 
   From the town’s biggest crooks. 


In Saginaw, in Saginaw, 
   There’s never a household fart, 
For if it did occur, 
   It would blow the place apart,— 
I met a woman who could break wind 
   And she is my sweet-heart. 


O, I’m the genius of the world,— 
   Of that you can be sure, 
But alas, alack, and me achin’ back, 
   I’m often a drunken boor; 
But when I die—and that won’t be soon— 
   I’ll sing with dear Tom Moore, 
   With that lovely man, Tom Moore. 


Coda: 


My father never used a stick, 
   He slapped me with his hand; 
He was a Prussian through and through 
   And knew how to command; 
I ran behind him every day 
   He walked our greenhouse land. 


I saw a figure in a cloud, 
   A child upon her breast, 
And it was O, my mother O, 
   And she was half-undressed, 
All women, O, are beautiful 
   When they are half-undressed.
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