Ellis Parker Butler (Эллис Паркер Батлер)
To Jessica, Gone Back to the City
Sence fair Jessica hez left us Seems ez ef she hed bereft us, When she went, o’ half o’ livin’; Fer we never knowed she’d driven Into us so much content, Till fair Jessica hed went. (Knowed a feller once thet cried When his yaller dog hed died.) We hain’t near ez bright an’ chirky, An’ the sun shines blue an’ murky, Kind o’ sadly an’ dishearted, Like ets sperret bed departed; Just ez ef ets joy bed ceased Sence fair Jessica ’s gone East. (Not but what ets always sober Sort o’ weather in October.) Then the posies, too, seems human, An’ hez all quit o’ their bloomin’; An’ the trees they show a pallor An’ hey turned a heart-sick yaller, Sayin’, “No use livin’ on Ef fair Jessica hez gone.” (Folks thet knows sez this ez all Very common in the fall.) Truth ez, I’m a-feelin’ sadly; Things ez goin’ kind o’ badly Round my heart an’ other vitals (Brings on poetry recitals O’ my woes ‘most ev’ry day) Sence fair Jessica’s away. (Kind o’ think thet I will haf ter Smoke a leetle less hereafter.) But, with fun aside, you know, We’re blamed sorry she must go; An’ we hope she’ll think, maybe, ‘Z well o’ us ez we o’ she.
Ellis Parker Butler’s other poems:
883
