Nickel a Pound”
Just a freckled face tag-along.
Too young to be pulling them bolls.
Mama pulls them bolls singing a song.
With baby brother riding on her sack in toll.
Hear me Jesus in heaven above why must I toil for a nickel a pound,
Stoop and pull them bolls for little pay we can’t stop ‘til the cotton trailers filled.
Cotton bolls up three feet high.
Sis and I are working hard to fill our sacks.
This is the last rows mama says.
Little brother eating a sweet potato.
Hear me Jesus in heaven above why must I toil for a nickel a pound,
Stoop and pull them bolls for little pay we can’t stop ‘til the cotton trailers full.
It’s been a long day for little pay.
Evening fades watching the sun go down.
To the house for a bath before we hit the hay
A bowl of red beans to fill this hollow sound.
Hear me Jesus in heaven above why must I toil for a nickel a pound,
Stoop and pull them bolls for little pay we can’t stop ‘til the cotton trailers full.
Snug in bed with little brother.
Sister’s listens to the radio
I hear Daddy’s telling mother.
It looks like this month we’ll be okay.
New shoes for the kids and a rug for you
A bicycle for Jim and wagon for Dee
For sis a record player and a record or two
We’re blessed to have kids like these.
Daddy turned out the light and went to bed.
Mama comes and gives us each a kiss.
“Goodnight,” she says, “I love you.”
Hear me Jesus, now I know why I toil for a nickel a pound.
About this poem
A true story 'poem' my family picking cotton in the late 1940s in Texas
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Written on January 12, 1993
Submitted by Bovina_Jim on August 08, 2023
- 1:34 min read
- 1 View
Quick analysis:
Scheme | axax Bx xxxc BD exeb BD fcfe gxgx xxg b |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,450 |
Words | 316 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 2, 4, 2, 4, 2, 4, 4, 3, 1 |
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"Nickel a Pound”" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/168280/nickel-a-pound”>.
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