Friday, June 14, 2013

Dear Livingston Parish , Louisiana



Gettysburg your Confederacy wore gray as to convince themselves
That in the median there was compromise that the extremities of right and wrong
Were and are malleable

So that some states of matter think it a microcosm of pride to x out the haze
In American-pirate cross-bones of red, white, and blue for a rebel yell

Well, the grayest of cloud, sir are white or black
Non-debatable facts, see some men died in the name of greed
Pawns in the game, not-whipped, but cajoled in laughter and pride
That this bishop or rook is better than him or me to die 

So 2013 and I see by the side of the road a fair trailer for sale stand
Of flags and NASCAR paraphernalia, embroidered with, “Pride not Hate”
Over the same blood-colored plate, as if in the passage of time history changes
The way a story-retold or untold or rebought and resold mutates

Stolen diamonds back into coal; out of Africa packed and shipped
Signed up and shined up and chained at the hip
So you can sit on Cherokee land and hang up blankets at a roadside stand
And think that your Confederate flag with an apology stamped

Next to a Bob Marley t-shirt is somehow an excuse to market the same lie
To hunters, truckers, and government issues
As I drive past returning my daughter from a soccer tournament in your town
Explaining in my head that this still goes on in the foreground

Knowing the lynchings from here to Baton Rouge
The KKK and the backwoods cartoons
Of my father telling me stories of who was asked to find a home
North of Lake Pontchartrain after the end

And where Homer’s train was headed in Plessy v Ferguson
I know, I know that was only 1896 to 2013,
1861 to 1865 civil war for uncivil lives
Who could still remember that is still alive?

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