bullfrog

i was sittin' by the bank on a hollow stump

when i thought i heard me a bullfrog jump

turned around and sure enough there he sat

he said excuse me

buddy

but i've been readin' your news

and i'm sorry to say that i'm a little confused

you bein' human

well you'd know where it's at. he said i read where this old world's gonna fold

and all on account of a think called gold

and that's somethin' hard for us frogs to understand

now you're lookin' at me like i'm kinda funny

but where i live we don't have no money

so we want to be hip to the happ'nin's here on land. now i thought i was stoned so i started walkin'

i mean whoever heard of a bullfrog talkin'

but then i realized i hadn't been grazin' in no grain

so i figured i'd tell him just what i thought

'bout how gold was sold and how gold was bought

and he'd understand our world when i explained. i said it all started a long time ago

when the people first learned to reap and sow

they got all the things they needed right out of the earth

like how many leaves and how many trees

would it take to cover up the anatomies

and that's how you figured how much a suit of clothes was worth. well then man he learned how to milk a cow

and how to till the soil with a stone blade plow

and he kept so busy he never had time to do you harm

then he'd take his produce and all that milk

and go into town and trade them for silk

so his woman she'd look sharp down at the farm. well the bullfrog let out a belly croak

like i'd told him some kind of a joke

and he said i think you're jivin' me my man

i said i know it sounds kinda mystifyin'

but the truth of the matter is i ain't lyin'

i mean i ain't talkin' no bullfrog

you understand?

he said now don't get upset i'm not agin' you

you just go ahead

go ahead and continue

and i'll be quiet and try to understand

he said i know about trees and leaves and plants

and milk and silk and the farmer's romance

but what's this thing the call supply and demand?

i said well i grow cotton and you grow corn

and you find your dungarees are all worn

and me well i got to have somethin' to eat

you see? so i make you some brand new threads

and now you bake me some fresh corn bread

pretty soon we'll have shops across the street. well this didn't work

or so we've been told

and at that time they didn't know about gold

so they all agreed they'd measure their goods in salt

well that idea had an early endin'

'cause they were eatin' more than they were spendin'

and besides

whoever heard of keepin' salt in a vault. well folks said gold was the thing to use

to pay for stuff like from ships to shoes

but it weighed too much and it looked too good to spend

so round about sixteen hundred and ninety

somebody started usin' foldin' money

and that's the tale

my friend

from end to end. well i thought it was a damn good explanation

i mean a real attempt at communication

and i only had me schoolin' up until the time i was ten

but the bullfrog right before he hopped away

well i could have sworn i heard him say

your world is still in the tadpole stage

my friend.