A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters
deadended on a siding in Midway, Alabama,
stand 6.5 miles of RR cars.
covered in kudzu and time, they stand,
iron cheeks squaring their gothic mouths;
they are Southern and Serve the South
(hub-deep in red clay) this land,
this ekkyklema of southern drama.
still, it is Bike Week in Daytona,
and the Lady is sold in yards from rucksacks
where a tattooed mama fucks & sucks
(her name is not Ramona).
here will come no deus ex machina,
this American South, this defeated dream
drunken, drugged, dolorous in their dementia,
these cavaliers race their engines and scream
where the marble figure in every square
shielding his eyes as the century turns
stands hillbilly stubborn and declares.
heading back north having spent our earnings,
honeyed and robbed we are fed on hatred
cold as our dollar they cannot spurn,
and we are in that confederate.
1 response so far ↓
1 GeneNovo // Jun 9, 2008 at 9:45 pm
…do not always catch Tom T’s classical references, but that was not a problem with his GREAT piece of the US South …. …fine fine piece on those oft-noted “bitter” folk … Gene Novo
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