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 @3saw@1 -- 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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONTRA MORTEM: THE NOTHING II by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE IMPORTANCE OF GREEN by JAMES GALVIN THE CENTER OF GRAVITY by DAVID IGNATOW MATE (1) by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON WHEN I AM DEAD by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON PRAYER AT SUNRISE by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON |