Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GEE-UP DAR, MULES, by EDWIN FORD PIPER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GEE-UP DAR, MULES, by                    
First Line: He stood up in our khaki with the poise
Last Line: "gwan-n, mules! Gee-up dar, mules!"
Subject(s): African Americans; Heroism; Negroes; American Blacks; Heroes; Heroines


He stood up in our khaki with the poise
Of perfect soldiership beneath the praise
Of the French officer. We caught the words,
"Conspicuous courage," "bringing wounded in,"
And "decorated with the cross of war."

Black-faced? Yes, just a nigger. Nine months since
He drove a span of bony cotton mules,
And never had been out of Jasper County
In Georgia, U. S. A.
They drafted him,
Shipped him to barracks, broke him into drill;
It was a changeling's life. I saw the lad
After his first three days in cantonment;
He had just finished polishing his teeth, --
Novel achievement, and he swung the brush
With beat ecstatic, chanting joyously:

"Lordy, lordy, got a toothbresh,
Lordy, lordy, got a toothbresh,
Lordy, lordy, got a toothbresh,
And I'll go to heaven on a-high!"

Perhaps he sings now of the service medal,
Or of some other meager badge or symbol
Out of that rich and shattering experience
Hurled round his simple soul. With hasty hand,
Life sweeps a loaded vivifying brush
Over his old dull past.

And yet, I like
To think he will come back to Jasper County;
I picture him in patched and faded denims;
Over the wagon wheel he mounts the seat,
Evens the lines so the lead team won't jerk,
Then all together the four nervous mules
Will straighten tugs, dig in their toes, and pull.
She shakes, she creaks, she rolls!
"Gee-up dar, mules!"

"General Foch is a fine old French,
He puts us niggers in a front line trench;
The barb-wire down, and the barrage begun, --
Boche sees a nigger, and the Boche he run,

O p' mourner!
You shall be free
When the good Lord sets you free!

"O, I hitched up the mules, and the mules worked fine;
I hitched 'em to that Hinnenburg line,
I drawed her back till I snapped her on the Rhine,
An' the boss come along, and he give me my time.
O po' mourner!
You shall be free
When the good Lord sets you free.
Gwan-n, mules! Gee-up dar, mules!"





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