This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

POTATO BLOSSOM SONGS AND JIGS

Rum tiddy um,
tiddy um,
tiddy um tum tum.

My knees are loose-like, my feet want to sling their selves.

I feel like tickling you under the chin—honey—and a-asking: Why Does a Chicken Cross the Road?

When the hens are a-laying eggs, and the roosters pluck-pluck-put-akut and you—honey—put new potatoes and gravy on the table, and there ain't too much rain or too little:

Say, why do I feel so gabby ?
Why do I want to holler all over the place?

Do you remember I held empty hands to you
and I said all is yours
the handfuls of nothing?

I ask you for white blossoms.

I bring a concertina after sunset under the apple trees.

I bring out "The Spanish Cavalier" and "In the Gloaming, O My Darling."


The orchard here is near and home-like.

The oats in the valley run a mile.

Between are the green and marching potato vines.
The lightning bugs go criss-cross carrying a zigzag of fire: the potato bugs are asleep under their stiff

33