Cause

 

Now you has ast me the biggest

question. You has ast me the biggest

question that I knows. I ast my mama the same

question: Mama, I ast her, Mama

what has us folks did?

 

                              Well, said my mama,

us folks hasn't did nothun. It was the babies

bottles that corsed all the trouble. It was

the babies

bottles that corsed the trouble between us

and the white folks. Her mama had a big ole

baby boy, and milk left over after he was plumb

full. So every day they went up the hill to the

biggest house in town where her mama nussed

their baby. Their baby, the way I heard, he

just latches on, he latches

on. First he drank fast, and then he drank

slow, like a dreamer, his eyes just

wanderin around. An your granma, she run out

in the yard with the white

kids splash creek, chase hens, pick

cherry, swing high.

 

                           Then one day the sto's

they had babies bottles on their shelf, rows

and rows of babies bottles. They didn't send

for her mama to the big house no mo. When she

was growed, she had milk too, and the same

with me, but it just

wasted away, just swole

away.

 

         One morning I ast my mama, mama I ast

her, what has us folks did? What has us did?