My Cheeky Mole

by Phoebe Anthus

Written after the incessant playback of Cotton-Eye Joe:
Jan M. Eriksson & Orjan Kjell Anders Oberg & Patrick Edenberg

I’ve named you Cotton-Eyed Joe,
You velvet headed woe!
When God was painting extra trees,
Did mothers praying buzz like bees?
Surely it got old!
Maybe he flicked the brush, loaded with brown paint,
Makes no difference if it’s a pesky fly or saint,
In any case, it was to me you came,
And life with you just cannot be the same.

For two ‘n a half decades you’ve stuck out your head
Bold as a brother who’s poked in bed.
“And if it hadn’t a been for Cotton-Eyed Joe
I’d a been married long time ago.”

I told the prince he’d have to make you leave.
He left instead, ‘n I laughed in my sleeve.
No “dissolve it with a kiss” for him.
He couldn’t risk my melaninish whim.
“Where’d you come from where’d you go?
Where’d you come from Cotton-Eyed Joe?”
A bloomin’ cheeky mole you is!
But bein’ mine, saved me from being his.

Phoebe Anthus is a stubborn artist with her head not so far into the clouds that she can not notice the solid, sensible things as well. 

Photography by Kenneth Godoy