The Grateful Patient

The doctor leaned tenderly over the bed
And looked at the patient 's complexion,
And felt of the pulse and the feverish head,
Then stood for a time in reflection.
"A strange complication!
My recommendation
Is morphia by hypodermic injection."

The patient looked up with a leer in his eye
And winked in the doctor's direction--
"Well, Doc," he remarked, "since you say I must die,
I'm grateful to you for protection--
I'm now in position
To ask the commission
T' excuse me from serving as judge of election."