My Copper Toed Boots

I'll never forget them, as long as I live,
The first pair of boots that I wore;
In the long, long ago, when I was but eight,
They brought them one day from the store.
I put them right on and I strutted about,
For I wanted the people to see
Those copper toed boots that completed my joy,
And made a Big Man out of me.

I had dreamed of those boots, yes for weeks and
for months,
And I wondered if dreams would come true;
I talked of them mornings, when I would get up,
And followed up all the day through;
For when I was eight they had told me, "Perhaps,"
I would be big enough for a pair.
So I longed, and I talked, and I dreamed of the day
When those copper toed boots I could wear.

I called ma's attention to boys smaller still,
Who had them and wore them to school;
I showed pa my shoes, with the tops far too low,
So low that my ankles got cool.
I measured myself with Bill Harvey, and he
Was not any taller than I,
And Bill had a pair of those copper toed boots^___
If Bill had, now why shouldn't I ?

And I got them the morning that I was just eight,
And I walked with big steps like my pa,
And he told me as I was a striding along,
"You'll be a man yet 'fore your ma."
I've had some fine things done for me in my time,
But most of them come through by freight;
But the finest of all was my copper toed boots
They gave me when I was just eight.

^__Ed Blair.