It must be some sort of measure for fame,
Don’t you think, whenever the public gets a joke
That features a person’s proper name.
You know all about this one:
Who is buried in Grant’s Tomb?
Ba Dum Ching.
A prominent man in the prominent mausoleum
On the prominent Riverside Drive,
The General and President, neat,
Without the baggage.
It’s 650 miles or so from the starting out
In Point Pleasant, Ohio to the final rest
In New York City, and along the way some prominent detours.
They don’t build monuments and can’t crack jokes
About the first steps – who can recall the details;
Who would get the humor: a childhood prodigy
In handling horses, a mastership without a hint of baggage,
A ticket to a wider world.
Just who is buried in Grant’s Tomb?
What’s left of a general and a president
And a world-wide celebrity –
For memory’s sake –
It’s just a boy with a way with horses.
