Calvin Campbell by Edgar Lee Masters — Read

Ye who are kicking against Fate, / Tell me how it is that on this hill-side / Running down to the river, / Which fronts the sun and the south-wind, / This plant draws from the air and soil / Poison and becomes poison ivy?

And this plant draws from the same air and soil / Sweet elixirs and colors and becomes arbutus?

And both flourish?

You may blame Spoon River for what it is, / But whom do you blame for the will in you / That feeds itself and makes you dock-weed, / Jimpson, dandelion or mullen / And which can never use any soil or air / So as to make you jessamine or wistaria?

# Spoon River Anthology - Poems Marked