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by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906)

Possum
Language: English 
Ef dey's anyt'ing dat riles me
An' jes' gits me out o' hitch,
Twell I want to tek my coat off,
So's to r'ar an' t'ar an' pitch,
Hit's to see some ign'ant white man
'Mittin' dat owdacious sin--
W'en he want to cook a possum
Tekin' off de possum's skin.

W'y, dey ain't no use in talkin',
Hit jes' hu'ts me to de haht
Fu' to see dem foolish people
Th'owin' 'way de fines' paht.
W'y, dat skin is jes' ez tendah
An' ez juicy ez kin be;
I knows all erbout de critter--
Hide an' haih--don't talk to me!

Possum skin is jes' lak shoat skin;
Jes' you swinge an' scrope it down,
Tek a good sha'p knife an' sco' it,
Den you bake it good an' brown.
Huh-uh! honey, you's so happy
Dat yo' thoughts is 'mos' a sin
When you's settin' dah a-chawin'
On dat possum's cracklin' skin.

White folks t'nk dey know 'bout eatin',
An' I reckon dat dey do
Sometimes git a little idee
Of a miedlin' dish er two;
But dey ain't a t'ing dey knows of
Dat I rekon cain't be beat
W'en we set down at de table
To a unskun possum's meat!

Text Authorship:

  • by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906), "Possum", appears in Howdy Honey Howdy, first published 1905 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Possum", 2010 [medium voice and piano], from Two Possum Songs, no. 2 [ sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-02-03
Line count: 32
Word count: 202

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