"Chillen Get Shoes" by Sterling A. Brown

Chillen Get Shoes


Hush little Lily,
    Don’t you cry;
You’ll get your silver slippers
    Bye and bye.

Moll wears silver slippers
    With red heels,
And men come to see her
    In automobiles.

Lily walks wretched,
    Dragging her doll,
Worshipping stealthily
    Good-time Moll;

Envying bitterly
    Moll’s fine clothes,
And her plump legs clad
    In openwork hose.

Don’t worry, Lily,
    Don’t you cry;
You’ll be like Moll, too,
    Bye and bye.


               1932


Source of the text - Sterling A. Brown, The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown, edited by Michael S. Harper.  Evanston, Ill. : TriQuarterly Books, 1996.

TJB:  Floozy shots. In this family tragedy clothed in nursery rhyme, the poet comforts a young girl on a trajectory to join the oldest profession.