Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A FEW LEFT, by BERTON BRALEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A FEW LEFT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The little jay town, says ed vance cook
Last Line: Along with me I will show him some.
Subject(s): Towns


The Little Jay Town, says Ed Vance Cook,
Is only found in the story book.
And every village that he has seen
Is smart and dapper and new and clean,
And the people revel in city dress
With metropolitan worldliness;
Well, most of what he has said is true
But—Ed's forgotten a town or two.

As long as you stick to the broad highway
The towns are smart and the towns are gay,
But follow the by-roads now and then
And you'll find they are something else again;
For back in the woods where the tree-frogs call
The Little Jay Town ain't gone at all,
The hayseeds linger, the rubes are thick
And the average citizen's a hick.

There shall you find as you wander in
Suspenders held with a safety pin.
The hickory shirt and the congress boots
And thick old-fashioned black Sunday suits.
There does the celluloid collar shine
As it did in the season of ninety-nine.
And the flannel petticoat holds its own
And silken stockings are quite unknown.

We're growing modern, and that's a fact,
But here and there you will find intact
The spot where the Little Jay Town survives,
Where people peacefully live their lives,
Grow up and marry and settle down
Congenital hicks in a true jay town.
No rube towns left? If Ed will come
Along with me I will show him some.





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