62177, A Song in the Front Yard Posted by SepiaSylph, Wed Nov-29-06 08:44 PM
I've stayed in the front yard all my life. I want a peek at the back Where it's rough and untended and hungry weed grows. A girl gets sick of a rose.
I want to go in the back yard now And maybe down the alley, To where the charity children play. I want a good time today.
They do some wonderful things. The have some wonderful fun. My mother sneers, but I say it's fine How they don't have to go in at quarter to nine. My mother, she tells me that Johnnie Mae Will grow up to be a bad woman. That George'll be taken to Jail soon or late (On account of last winter he sold our back gate).
--Gwendolyn Brooks
But I say it's fine Honest, I do And I'd like to be a bad woman, too, And wear the brave stocking of night-black lace And strut down the streets with paint on my face.
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