A S.S.T.’s Lament [poem by Joseph Furphy]

[Editor: This poem by Joseph Furphy was published in The Poems of Joseph Furphy (1916).]

A S.S.T.’s Lament.

Would I were a profit monger,
Buying cheap, and selling dear,
Groceries, or something stronger,
Toys, or pipes, or sporting gear,
Wrong, maybe, but ain’t it wronger
That I should be stranded here,
While my upper lip grow longer,
Month by month, and year by year?

Source:
K. B. [Kate Baker] (editor), The Poems of Joseph Furphy, Melbourne: Lothian Book Publishing Co., 1916, page 37

Editor’s notes:
This poem was presumably written for Kate Baker, who was a state school teacher and a friend of Joseph Furphy.

S.S.T. = state school teacher