“Ought-To-Do City” | Ella Higginson

Come, let’s run away from Ought-To-Do City,

The Mustn’t-Do valleys are green and cool,

With meadow-larks up to the blue heaven singing,

And lilies abloom on the murmurous pool.

You-Owe-Me-a-Visit lives down on this corner;

She’s watching us now with her wrinkled-up eyes;

We’ve been to her “days” and her teas and receptions—

So now it is hey, for the Mustn’t-Do skies!

Such ugly old folk live in Ought-To-Do City—

Miss This-Is-Your-Duty, Don’t-Powder-Your-Face,

And old grandma Mercy-Don’t-Flirt-With-Your-Neighbors,

And-What-Did-You-Pay-by-the-Yard-for-Your-Lace.

Let’s hide us away to the beautiful valleys

And dwell with the flowers, the birds and the trees;

We’ll build us a tent from the blue of the heavens—

And love and be loved, Dear, and do we please.

“Ought-To-Do City” printed in The Seattle Times (April 7, 1900), in Higginson’s literary column “Clover Leaves.” Clipping courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham Washington.