This thing of writing "homely verse,"
With country phrases, jokes and slang;
With "jiminies!" "by hecks!" and such,
With "backwoods" odor, taste and tang--
This thing, I say, of making light
Of country life is funny--Not!
I'd like to know where we would be
If farms were all to go to pot!
We talk a lot of "backyard farms,"
"Intensive gard'ning"--"how to raise
All vegetables that you need
On ten square feet in twenty days."
We figure fortunes that six hens
Will bring us--if we keep 'em penned;
And yet, when farmers are the butt
Of jokes, who rises to defend?
I'm weary of this silly pose,
This pseudo-humor, sickly wit;
I will not laugh or even smile
When at the farmers jokesmiths hit.
Especially this time of year
I do denounce it! (Uncle Jim
Out on his farm lives well--and he
Has asked us all to visit him!)