those of us

those of us who fled our southern hometowns
because of disingenuousness
because of intolerance
because of hyper-conservatism
because of the heat and the hate
because of hypercapitalism
because of retrograde and regressive tendencies

(we know all of the above are not endemic to the south… BUT)

we’ve been replaced with alien and invasive species

green iguanas, pythons, peter’s rock agama, nile monitors, tegus, land snails, u get the drift…

only the cold blooded and unempathic could survive in this heat

cultists to the orange strident
they drape themselves in red white and blue bunting and erect 10 foot crosses in their front yards

in weather fit only for birds and iguanas
in an atmosphere only tardigrades could tolerate

all of this beauty in a state that dangles like an impotent penis—a flaccid handgun—at the southeast corner of this blundered and plundered cracking republic

What I’m Reading:

To those inclined toward kindness, I say
Come out of your houses drumming. All others,  
beware: I have discarded my smile but not my teeth.

— Rita Dove / “Incantation of the First Order”