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Plantation echoes

Chapter 45: FORCE OF WORDS.
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About This Book

A short collection of poems written in a period phonetic dialect that evokes rural plantation life and folk-song rhythms. The pieces range from playful and humorous to plaintive and reflective, depicting work, home, music, seasonal change, and communal gatherings through repetition, colloquial idiom, and musical cadence. Many poems adopt a performative voice and narrative vignette form to capture local speech and sentiment. Several passages employ slang and stereotyped language rooted in their historical moment, which modern readers may find offensive.

FORCE OF WORDS.

Chicken stew
Was all I said.
Made dat coon
Hop out o’ bed,
Butt his head
Ergin de wall
Kooden’ stan’
De thing at all.
Jes’ dat menshun,
Jes’ dat talk,
Made dat coon’s
Eyes white ez chawk.
Looked eroun’
An’ licked his chops
Ez doh he hyeahd
Dey wings flopp! flopp!
Well, dem wurds,
Dey struck dat coon
Lak er ’lectric
Shock in June!
Kooden’ sleep
No mo’ dat night,
Rolled an’ tossed
Until daylight.