Tennessee Claflin Shope

I WAS the laughing-stock of the village,

Chiefly of the people of good sense, as they call themselves —

Also of the learned, like Rev. Peet, who read Greek

The same as English.

For instead of talking free trade,

Or preaching some form of baptism;

Instead of believing in the efficacy

Of walking cracks, picking up pins the right way,

Seeing the new moon over the right shoulder,

Or curing rheumatism with blue glass,

I asserted the sovereignty of my own soul.

Before Mary Baker G. Eddy even got started

With what she called science I had mastered the “Bhagavad Gita,”

And cured my soul, before Mary Began to cure bodies with souls —

Peace to all worlds!