Aunt Chloe's Politics

Of course, I don’t know very much
    About these politics,
But I think that some who run ’em
    Do mighty ugly tricks.

I’ve seen ’em honey-fugle round,
    And talk so awful sweet,
That you’d think them full of kindness,
    As an egg is full of meat.

Now I don’t believe in looking
    Honest people in the face,
And saying when you’re doing wrong,
    That “I haven’t sold my race.”

When we want to school our children,
    If the money isn’t there, 
Whether black or white have took it,
    The loss we all must share.

And this buying up each other
    Is something worse than mean,
Though I thinks a heap of voting,
    I go for voting clean. 

Credit

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on June 23, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets.

About this Poem

“Aunt Chloe’s Politics” was published in Sketches of Southern Life (Ferguson Brothers, 1891).