Shoesie (Second version)

This please do me

And don’t talk back:

Never shoesie

In the sack!

The black Lady to her husband

on the occasion

of January 1^st.

Shoesie’s the word that snoozy

Says the black man sneering;

Shoesie translates: “Know nothing!”

Black idleness, that’s Shoesie.

Shoesie.

Shoesie everywhere’s a doozy:

Negroes are quite dark-intrenched,

Another color than the French

Who dwell, cassocked or blousy.

Shoesie.

As in banana country

In Windsor, Berlin or Paris,

Halfway from here to progress

Something always goes screwy:

Shoesie.

Whoever canes a man to bruises,

Slaps folks, kicks their backs

However you hitch up hacks,

Soon as iron’s on noses:

Shoesie.

Winter to the blind man schmoozing

Some scrap, a man above,

So as not to doff his glove

Says—sole alms—it’s nippy...

Shoesie.

The flux of the Oceanic sea

Yaps at the earth like a mutt,

Renewing the ancient flood,

But labors at the dike you see:

Shoesie.

On the flagship out cruising

Eighty rowers one could tell.

Into pirates’ hands they fell,

Having got a little woozy...

Shoesie!

The cyclist whom riding makes weary

Affronts every excursion

Thanks to this precaution:

He gets his bike on the trolley:

Shoesie!

An old lady gets a bit bluesy

And her heart’s no more than a boat.

Joseph leaves her his coat

And turning the doorknob doth flee...

Shoesie!

The Turk in the arms of his floozy

Proves and reproves his love;

But perhaps a day will come

His titanic vigor to lose he...

Shoesie!

From his blood to his hue, see

The cuirassier fly to his battles;

But under the fire that him rattles

The true Frenchman has no shoesie!

Shoesie.

(spoken:)

Wot’s this all s’posed t’ be?

Shoesie’s the word that snoozy

Says the black man sneering;

Shoesie translates: “Know nothing!”

Black idleness, that’s Shoesie.

Shoesie!

Envoy

We confess to the jury,

If required a bit we never

Made that Almanac so clever

And never at all wrote “Shoesie”,

Being greatly subject to Shoesie.

Alfred Jarry