When Father Gets a Raise

Ma says we can’t buy this an’ that

     We are so plaguey poor;

No use, she says, to imitate

     The neighbors live next door.

She says that pa has never earnt

     But small pay all his days;

She says he thinks that pretty soon

     He’s goin’ to get a raise.

Ma says the time is comin’ when

     We’ll have our proper sphere;

That we won’t always have to live

     Like we are livin’ here.

Ma says there’s goin’ to be a change,

     That we are goin’ to phase

The neighbors who’ve been stingin’ us,

When father gets a raise.

Ma says we’ll have some better clothes

     First thing, and then she’ll get

Some real lace curtains, after which

     A red plush parlor set.

She says she’s never had her rights

     In all her married days;

That she will just begin to live,

     When father gets his raise.

She’s goin’ to get some hats and puffs,

     And wear a pongee coat;

And have a string of beads hang down,

     And twice around the throat.

An’ sister’s goin’ to learn to play –

     “O, we will just amaze

The hull blame neighborhood,” says Ma,

     “When father gets a raise.”

But father, he is cooler’n ma,

     He don’t run on at all;

He smokes away an’ tips his chair

     Ag’inst the kitchen wall.

One night when ma was runnin’ on

     Pa says, with peerless gaze,

“I wonder what they’d be fur me,

Suppose I got a raise?”

Aug 3, ‘09

pongee - 1. silk of a slightly uneven weave made fromfilaments of wild silk woven in natural tan color.

                 2. a cotton or rayon fabric imitating it.   http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pongee