Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE NIGHT MA HEARD THE BURGLAR, by DOUGLAS MALLOCH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE NIGHT MA HEARD THE BURGLAR, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The night ma heard the burgaler we're not so / likely to forget
Last Line: Right through his go-to-meetin' suit that ma had left out on the line.
Subject(s): Burglars


The night Ma heard the burgaler we're not so likely to forget.
At three she says it wakened her (Pa says it wasn't midnight yet);
But anyway Ma heard a noise, Ma heard a burgaler as plain.
Pa said, "Go on, it's only boys," and tried to go to sleep again.

Ma made us children put on clo'es and then get underneath the bed;
She said to Pa, "I don't suppose that you'll get up until we're dead."
Pa said, "I never heard a thing, what's more I don't hear nothin' now."
Ma said, "Get up; the lantern bring; because I heard one, anyhow."

Pa just rolled over. Ma got mad. She said, "I guess you're just afraid."
That surely got a rise from Dad. Inside his clo'es a jump he made
And grabbed his gun and started. "No," then Mother yelled, "stay here! No, sir! --
I ain't a-goin' to let you go get shot by any burgaler!"

But Pa ran down, threw wide the door; outside he never heard a sound;
And so the back he started for, and then, just as he got around,
He saw -- well, then we heard him shoot, shoot seven times, or eight, or nine,
Right through his go-to-meetin' suit that Ma had left out on the line.





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