"well i screams / ya little green pervert / an i hitsm with my mop / an has ta flush / the toilet down three time" (Lines 19 - 23)
The diction in Machan's poem is quite colloquial and informal. The speaker chooses words like "flushm" instead of "flush him" and "sida" instead of "side of." This use of words that would not normally be accepted in a formal writing assignment makes the poem easier to read and more fun too. When I initially read this poem, I thought of the movie, Princess and the Frog that came out a few years ago. The main female character, Tiana, speaks somewhat like the speaker of this poem, and she too was skeptical when the frog asked to kiss her. Here's a clip that accurately porttrays the reaction the speaker in the poem has to the frog from one of the best Disney movies to grace theater screens in a while. (Aside from, of course, Lion King 3D that was absolutely incredible!!)
I find it ironic that this poem was written in 1976, and The Princess and the Frog came out in the last two years. They have such similar storylines: an African American girl with an accent meets a talking frog and is skeptical. The most important difference; however, is that the movie was written by Disney and has a happy ending whereas the poem was written by Machan and did not end beautifully.
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