I couldn’t stop movin’ when it first took hold
It was a warm spring night at the old town hall
There was a group called The Jokers, they were layin’ it down
Don’t cha know I’m never gonna lose that funky sound
Rock and roll, Hoochie Koo / Lawdy mama light my fuse
Rock and roll, Hoochie Koo / Truck on out and spread the news
The skeeters start buzzing ’bout this time o’ year
I’m goin’ round back, she said she’d meet me there
We were rollin’ in the grass that grows behind the barn
When my ears started ringin’ like a fire alarm
Rock and roll, Hoochie Koo / Lawdy mama light my fuse
Rock and roll, Hoochie Koo / Truck on out and spread the news
Hope ya’ll know what I’m talkin’ about
The way they wiggle that thing really knocks me out
I’m gettin’ high all the time, hope ya’ll are too
Come on a little closer, gonna do it to you
Rock and roll, Hoochie Koo / Lawdy mama light my fuse
Rock and roll, Hoochie Koo / Truck on out and spread the news
That I’m tired of payin’ dues / Done said goodbye to all my blues
Lawdy mama light my fuse
AND NOW,
The MFA Modern Lit re-write:
spring: The Jokers
(in Hoochie-Koo, the lawdy Hoochie Koo—)
and so the laying-down
until fuse lit
the mama lawdyspread, a truck
trucking the news;
skeeters buzz the grass, rolling, rolling
alarmed: the barn fire
// she had said she would meet me//
in Hoochie-Koo (the lawdy Hoochie Koo)
wriggling, spring knocked
higher // closer than time had known
bitten, dues paid, bit-lit
illiterate
mama lit that fuse
in Hoochie-Koo, the lawdy