Explore "The Picture" by Payson Sibley Wild on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A pitchur of a feller hangin' up / In thet 'ar little room o' mine at Bill's / Hez offen set my wond'rin' works ter goin'. / He's stannin' on a stun verandy like, / A oldish sort o' man with streaky hair, / Up high whar 'e kin see some ways away, / 'N' 'is clo'es is suthin' like the ones I seen / In Bill's 'lustrated fambly Bible, hung / All over 'im in drapish kind o' folds, / An' jes' some in-soles fassen'd on 'is feet / With funny strings a-runnin' threw 'is toes. / They's trees an' scen'ry out in front, green fiel's, / A rollin' hill or so, a crick, a bunch / O' little houses whar they's fokes at work, / An' things looks peeceful, like they do here'bouts / In this 'ere Skillet deestric' in Jooly. / But back o' all them things yew seem ter see / A wall o' clouds a-fencin' on 'em in, / An' yew cain't tell 'f they's mount'ins, sea, or what / A-layin' off behind, it's all so dim. / Afore I've blowed the light out menny nights / I've looked at thet thar chap, an' almos' tho't / I knowed what he was sensin', 'cos I seen / T' 'e hed a far-off look, an' sort o' scrunched / 'Is shoulders 'zif 'e'd clean fergot hisself.
One night in early Joon Bill come t' my room / Ez I was goin' ter bed, 'n' I ast 'im, "Bill," / I sez, "thet feller up thar gits me goin'; / Yew got a idee what 'e's thinkin'? 'Pears / Ter me he's fig'rin' what it's all about, / Same's me an' yew does sometimes when we're 'lone. " / Bill 'lows 'e ain't no pote, but fust I knowed / He ups an' gits the foll'rin' off 'is chist, / An' damfino 'f 'e made it up hisself, / Or got it some'r's outen readin' books: