Pansies (Lawrence)/True Democracy

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TRUE DEMOCRACY
I wish I was a gentleman
as full of wet as a watering-can
to whizz in the eye of a police-man—

But my dear fellow, my dear fellow
can it be that you still don't know
that every man, whether high or low
is a gentleman if he thinks himself so?—

He is an' all, you bet 'e is!
I bet I am.—You can 'old yer phiz
abaht it.—Yes, I'm a gent, an' Liz
ere, she's a lidy, aren't yer, old quizz?—

Of course I'm a lidy, what d'yer think?
You mind who yer sayin' isn't lidies!
All the hinglish is gentlemen an' lidies,
like the King an' Queen, though they're up just a wink.—

—Of course you are, but let me say
I'm American, from New Orleans,
and in my country, just over the way,
we are all kings and queens!—

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