Adapted excerpt from ‘Roll Call’ May 1932, Midland Cycling & Athletic Club monthy newsletter.
The clock went off at five a.m, when it was nearly night,
I rose me up, and forth I went into the cold twilight;
And in passing down the hallway I glanced to see the date
And put my fur-lined gloves on then, because it was February eight.
Ye Gods and little fishes, O! How can a man feel bright,
When a golden dream is shattered in the middle of the night,
Just when he’s grasped a great desire, that damned alarm clock goes,
And he’s urged to take the highway where the clammy dawn mist flows.
I should not mind a button if I rose up with the dawn,
If you would hang a sunbeam out, to grace a winter morn;
But what can we expect today when everything is bleak?
Ride further than a thousand miles before the finish of the week.
