Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950). Spoon River Anthology. 1916.

57. Deacon Taylor

I BELONGED to the church,

And to the party of prohibition;

And the villagers thought I died of eating watermelon.

In truth I had cirrhosis of the liver,

For every noon for thirty years,

I slipped behind the prescription partition

In Trainor’s drug store

And poured a generous drink

From the bottle marked

”Spiritus frumenti.”