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Title: One-Armed Joe
Author: Cotton Noe [
More Titles by Noe]
Ricollect ol' One-Armed Joe?
Lost it grindin' cane.
Same blame feller 't used to go
Round with Lizy Jane
Grindin' sorghum ever fall.
Lizy Jane wuz Joe's ol' mare;
Never showed her at a fair,
But blamed 'f she couldn't beat all
Ringsters to an ol' cane sweep
That ever stepped a mile. Never fat,
Ring-bone an' bob-tail an' all that,
But law! she made the cane-mill weep!
An' us chillern, we'd allus go
Over where they's grindin' cane
An' git to ride ol' Lizy Jane,
An' hear the jokes of One-Armed Joe;
An' maybe git the sorghum skimmin's,
Thwuzzent allus so many wimmins
Bossin' round, cause One-Armed Joe,
He loved us chillern bettern them.
(Bet he wears a diadem
In the world where preachers go).
Joe had grit and feelin's, too,
An' they wuzzent nothin' he couldn't do,
'Cept to do another harm:
Ketch a possum, kill a bear,
Cuss an' dance, or lead in prayer;
Jump a rope, or skin a cat,
Make a speech or guess a riddle,
Sing a song, or play the fiddle--
No, Joe couldn't quite do that,
Cause One-Armed Joe had lost an arm,
But that's all he couldn't do.
One night dogs treed a coon
Up a leanin' poplar tree;
Joe could by the glimmerin' moon
See the leanin' poplar leant:
Jerked his coat and up he went;
Ketched the possum, let him go,
Slipped his holts and hollered, "Oh!"
An' down into eternity
Limp and warm, fell poor old Joe!
Don't remember One-Armed Joe?
Feller I'll bet the angels know!
[The end]
Cotton Noe's poem: One-Armed Joe
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