Leo Sanford Taylor
‘Cuz I Gotta Go To School’
Following is a poem that my grandfather, Leo S. Taylor, quoted from memory at every Taylor reunion for many years. It was his favorite. I should mention that the fourth stanza of the poem, which starts with “I’d like to cross great deserts..” was penned by myself (Michael Taylor) and is not part of the original poem that my grandfather quoted.
‘Cuz I gotta go to school
I’d like to hunt wild animals that roam the boundless plain,
I’d like to be a pirate, and plow the ragin’ main,
And capture some big island, with lordly pomp to rule,
But I just can’t do nothin’ cuz I gotta go to school.
I’d like to be regarded as the terror of the plains,
I’d like to hear my victims shriek and clank their prison chains,
I’d like to face the enemy, with a gaze serene and cool,
And wipe ‘em off the earth, but ‘pshaw’, I gotta go to school.
I’d like to be a cowboy and rope the Texas steer,
I’d like to be a sleuth hound, or a bloody buccaneer,
And leave my foe to wither where their blood had made a pool,
But how can I get famous when I gotta go to school?
I’d like to cross great deserts, I’d like to climb tall peaks,
Explore some deep dark cavern, trap beaver in mountain creeks,
Instead I sit in a corner with a dunce cap, on a stool,
My life it’s dull and worthless ‘cuz I gotta go to school.
I don’t see why my parents always make the big mistake,
Of keepin’ down a boy like me that has a name to make,
It ain’t no wonder boys are bad and balky as a mule,
Life, it ain’t worth livin’ when ya gotta go to school.
Most all great men, so I have read, have been the ones that got
The least amoung of learnin’, by a flickerin’ pitch pine knot;
And many a daring boy like me grows up to be a fool,
And never ‘mounts to nothin’ cuz he’s go to go to school.
What good is ‘rithmetic and such, exceptin’ just for girls,
And maybe them there ‘fauntleroys’ that wear their hair in curls.
So if my name is never seen in history books, why you’ll,
Remember that it’s all because I gotta go to school.
Nixon Waterman
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