Hillbilly

 

 

we went there to find whiteness
after the long shadow of black walls,
coal mines too deep to breathe
nose holes always darkened and our hair
a thick soot of heavy strands
but the sidewalks only appeared white
at first viewing, fine blood stains faded,
urine bordered the cracks, and black leathered
ladies lingered in cement and our style
of friendly greeting brought narrowed
eyes and lips lifted in contempt
I told Harrison we were never meant
to leave the mines, but he loved women
and the acute colors flashing
a straight way dance to his desires
but I couldn't remember mine
for trying to survive all that noise
and the bone rack waste of humanity
blissful with a needle or a rock
I told Harrison we were out of place
as the fifth story walk up rattled
and bodies filled every empty space
as some man punched a girl named Sabrina
and I slam slapped his face
but all she said was Hillbilly boy,
get back to your milk and hay
the trains rattled all night and into the day
and we fought parasites and misfits
and we stayed at the loading dock till late
and emptied trucks when they backed in
standing in a concrete cubicle black
with exhaust fumes and rubbing our eyes at
the burn, and you stayed there, live there
still, but I feel this world is black
in some spots and only sunny on those rare days
that I respect myself and Sunday.

Reviews

[Chris]

"Bring IT!" means this... Hillbilly means all to often a disdain for cultured (in another's closed mind) APPEARANCES and appreciation of social nuances. Its a putdown of worth and value without a thought toward reality and perception. Its belittling differences without a concept of culture, creed, thought. or living...

Its the saddest name to escape the lips of a person self-describing their dellusions of self while seeming to lay a lack of their own upon another.

You bring thoughts to a table... even when they aren't yours... it says something nice and real.

Chris

[W.k.kortas]

Wonderful voice, and the final eight lines are brilliant and pitch-perfect. Wonderful, powerful stuff.

[Ed Hart]

when a poet soul climbs into a hillbilly heart...well, the world has to stand aside for that, because the w****s and coal tramps and guys whose hands reach to the ease of a slap find themselves pinned to the poem...and the lady needs to wake up every morning singing her self respect because she could only settle comfortably with a heart to match her own

[Emily B]

oh, Phibby . . . my northern cousins called me hillbilly girl when I was a kid . . . something about my too short jeans and my bare feet . . . I hated that more than anything. I always wondered why they didn't remember that they came from the same tree I did. . . .

[Robin]

love how you weave elements of social perception , of morality , of a stranger in a strange land , of altered landscapes and how Home has its own defintion to all