help_japan Found Poetry for ishie: i am not scared of the booger-man
Title: i am not scared of the booger-man
Rating: PGish
Disclaimer: True Grit isn't mine, etc.
This is found poetry for ishie, who very generously donated to help_japan. ♥
("Found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and/or lines (and consequently meaning)." Source)
The source material is an excerpt from True Grit, by Charles Portis.
i am not scared of the booger-man
Mr. Rooster Cogburn?
He had a paper in one hand and
a sack of tobacco in the other and
he was trying to roll a cigarette.
I said,
They tell me
you are a man with true grit.
His hands were shaking
and he was spilling tobacco.
What do you want, girl? Speak up.
I took the half-made cigarette
and shaped it up
and licked it
and sealed it
and twisted the ends
and gave it back to him.
He lit it and it flamed up
and burned about halfway down.
I am looking for the man who
shot and
killed my father.
(a finer man never lived)
The man's name is Tom Chaney.
They say he is over in the Indian Territory
and I need somebody to go after him.
He said, What is your name, girl?
His mind was on something
else.
My name is Mattie Ross.
I will pay you a fifty-dollar reward.
(In the sack,
Papa’s gun.
It belonged to my father.
I intend to kill Tom Chaney with it
if the law
fails to do so.)
He said,
If you are hungry
I will give you supper and
we will talk it over and
make medicine.
How does that suit you?
I figured he would live in a house
with
his family
and was not prepared to discover
he had only a small room in the
back of a Chinese grocery store
on a dark street.
He did not have a wife.
There was a blanket for a tablecloth.
He ate with a spoon in one hand and
a wadded-up piece of white bread in the other,
with considerable sopping.
I said, What about my proposition?
Rooster said, I am thinking on it.
I hope you don't think I am going
to keep you in whiskey, I said.
You might try a little touch of it
for your cold,
he said.
I would not put
a thief in
my mouth to
steal my brains.
(You wouldn't? No, I wouldn't.)
A hundred dollars is my price, sis.
There it is.
I said,
For that kind of money
I would want to be
pretty sure of what I was getting.
Now
I want to go to the Monarch boardinghouse.
You had
better walk over there with me.
I don't know the way.
He said,
You are a lot of trouble.
Wait until I finish this hand.
I kept after him but
he would only say, One more hand,
and
pretty soon I was asleep with
my head on the table.
Some time later he began to shake me.
Wake up,
he was saying. Wake up, baby sister.
He was drunk and
he was fooling around with Papa's pistol.
He said,
You would not know how to load it if you did have.
He dropped things and got them all
askew and did not do a good job.
I know how to load it, I said.
(I mean business.)
I am ready to go.
Do you hear me?
I took my revolver from him and put it back in the sack.
He poured some more
whiskey
in his cup.
I got up and walked out,
thinking I would shame him into coming along
and seeing that I got home all right
but he did not follow
The town was quite dark
and I walked fast
and saw not a soul
I have always
had a good head
for directions.
("Nobody here knew my father and
I am afraid nothing much is
going to be done about Chaney
except I do it myself. ")
Are you scared of the dark?
I never was scared of the dark.
It was some time
before I got any sleep.
(I had a cough.)
.
Rating: PGish
Disclaimer: True Grit isn't mine, etc.
This is found poetry for ishie, who very generously donated to help_japan. ♥
("Found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and/or lines (and consequently meaning)." Source)
The source material is an excerpt from True Grit, by Charles Portis.
i am not scared of the booger-man
Mr. Rooster Cogburn?
He had a paper in one hand and
a sack of tobacco in the other and
he was trying to roll a cigarette.
I said,
They tell me
you are a man with true grit.
His hands were shaking
and he was spilling tobacco.
What do you want, girl? Speak up.
I took the half-made cigarette
and shaped it up
and licked it
and sealed it
and twisted the ends
and gave it back to him.
He lit it and it flamed up
and burned about halfway down.
I am looking for the man who
shot and
killed my father.
(a finer man never lived)
The man's name is Tom Chaney.
They say he is over in the Indian Territory
and I need somebody to go after him.
He said, What is your name, girl?
His mind was on something
else.
My name is Mattie Ross.
I will pay you a fifty-dollar reward.
(In the sack,
Papa’s gun.
It belonged to my father.
I intend to kill Tom Chaney with it
if the law
fails to do so.)
He said,
If you are hungry
I will give you supper and
we will talk it over and
make medicine.
How does that suit you?
I figured he would live in a house
with
his family
and was not prepared to discover
he had only a small room in the
back of a Chinese grocery store
on a dark street.
He did not have a wife.
There was a blanket for a tablecloth.
He ate with a spoon in one hand and
a wadded-up piece of white bread in the other,
with considerable sopping.
I said, What about my proposition?
Rooster said, I am thinking on it.
I hope you don't think I am going
to keep you in whiskey, I said.
You might try a little touch of it
for your cold,
he said.
I would not put
a thief in
my mouth to
steal my brains.
(You wouldn't? No, I wouldn't.)
A hundred dollars is my price, sis.
There it is.
I said,
For that kind of money
I would want to be
pretty sure of what I was getting.
Now
I want to go to the Monarch boardinghouse.
You had
better walk over there with me.
I don't know the way.
He said,
You are a lot of trouble.
Wait until I finish this hand.
I kept after him but
he would only say, One more hand,
and
pretty soon I was asleep with
my head on the table.
Some time later he began to shake me.
Wake up,
he was saying. Wake up, baby sister.
He was drunk and
he was fooling around with Papa's pistol.
He said,
You would not know how to load it if you did have.
He dropped things and got them all
askew and did not do a good job.
I know how to load it, I said.
(I mean business.)
I am ready to go.
Do you hear me?
I took my revolver from him and put it back in the sack.
He poured some more
whiskey
in his cup.
I got up and walked out,
thinking I would shame him into coming along
and seeing that I got home all right
but he did not follow
The town was quite dark
and I walked fast
and saw not a soul
I have always
had a good head
for directions.
("Nobody here knew my father and
I am afraid nothing much is
going to be done about Chaney
except I do it myself. ")
Are you scared of the dark?
I never was scared of the dark.
It was some time
before I got any sleep.
(I had a cough.)
.