Thirteen seeds in a beggar's hand.
Sun comes free, but he ain't got land.
He won't get a plot of his own
till he's buried without a stone.
But, beggar - he's a thinkin' man.
Keeps road dust in a coffee can.
Gathers dirt wherever he goes,
and that beggar man plants and grows
his thirteen seeds.
Thirteen seeds in a Folger's can
are treasure to the beggar man.
Then the guvmint screams "taxes owed!"
and comes to take the "land" he stole,
leavin' him with nothin' to show
for thirteen seeds.
For Mary's Challenge at Real Toads
Blog Archive
-
▼
2012
(256)
-
▼
July
(25)
- Standards
- Skinner Box
- Wayward Arrows
- I Tried
- If They Can't Take A Joke
- Hieroglyphics
- That June
- A Woman's History
- Unfinished
- The Devil
- Roadside Stand
- Unanswered
- Constellations
- French Today
- Thirteen Seeds
- What We Wore
- Down At The Local
- Wood Of The Widow Maker
- Other Housewives
- Uncertainty
- Boxed Up / Boxed In
- Indecision
- Ghost
- Snapshots
- Ellipses
-
▼
July
(25)
Friday, July 13, 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About Me
- Maude Lynn
- Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days. ---Flannery O'Connor
22 comments:
It was the coffee can that tipped off the guvmint. Next time, he should plant those seeds in the cuffs of his pants...
This is so clever. A bit of Coal Black's rhythm to it. Yup. Pant cuffs for the next planting!
This beggar seems too intelligent to spend his time begging. I bet he could find a job where he would not have to support himself by handouts. Hmmm, just sayin'
Very 1930's feel to this, MZ. Steinbeck-ish, even.
Sounds about right. That's what you get for bein' a thinkin' man.
"He won't get a plot of his own
till he's buried without a stone" ... My favorite part.
Pay up, cheapskate! Someone's got to make up for all the taxes that big business doesn't pay.
Hmm. ("boycot" is misdirected?)
Your poem: like a parable, with funny elements: "He won't get a plot of his own / till he's buried without a stone."
And of course the whole catch 22 of the crop. It would make a great song!
"85 percent of divorces in America are INITIATED by women, thus women are responsible for the vast majority of divorces." ... Ha. Hilarious. Nevermind WHY they file for divorces. How ridiculous.
I agree with Susan and Flipside about boycott and will add I know of a foreign woman who married into the united states to an American man and divorced him and took her fair share...considering that they were in a business together and she had every right to leave and be able to support herself after doing so.
Seriously...your boycott is faulty and flailing. Misdirected...yup.
Any way, the reason we're here is to comment on Mama Zen's poetry. Sorry about that...just had to put that in...
This is well done...I love the coffee can detail!! The form flows very easily and I really enjoy that you brought in the thirteen factor with the number of seeds!
Great one!! Smiles to you!!
I see this as a malady of modern times. The deprived are harassed for trying to make a living. From another angle, The 'dishonest' get way because of big bucks Great write MZ
Hank
You just so know how to tell a story... I love the "Steinbeck" tag above and so agree!
Well Done and it felt like a song...I could see it in a movie~
Great way to get the 13 factor involved :D
Amazing imagery. You connect so well with your protagonist's struggle :)
Awesome!!
love the dialects on display here and the merging of the first two stanzas into the third, especially in how you went from vague, as in coffee can, to specific, as in folgers can, brand name for those reading the comments unaware. Really a fine job. Thanks
This verse teaches me so much about telling a story. Bringing in the details a bit at a time draws the reader into the story. Good one.
I like the tale of the 13 seeds...we work like beggars but someone is always taking the fruits away from us ~
You should delete the boycott post ~
I so enjoyed your rondeau - your use of the vernacular transported the French form and made it so authentically American.
It looks like you got spammed by someone with his own narrow-minded agenda up there. Hope you expunge it from existence on your space.
Love your rondeau... it's like a song, it reads so well.
nice...so good MZ....i barely realized it was in form...and that is really good...great progression...ugh on the taxes....little mans got to pay so the friends of the regime can have their way...
That's a dirty thing to do!
crap. notha goodin. dam govmint. tell you the worst crime though is Monsanto binis. dem gahs been caloodin with dem fellas down in Warshinton
Post a Comment