PrettyFakes

Poem for Maine
on the occasion of the voters of Maine repealing gay marriage, November 3, 2009

Oh Maine, it’s okay, we understand you
down here in Mississippi.
We wouldn’t have voted to
integrate the schools in ’54, either

Hell we even shut down our
City pools in Jackson, so as not to commit
a little white child to being splashed
by a colored one.
Hell we had riots when ole Meredith
wanted to take botany, and we
Shot Medgar Evers in the back.
Hell we shot him in the back in
the driveway of his house. I can never remember
if his kids were home at the time,
but we shot him in the back at his home.

Oh Maine, it’s okay
join the club.

Here is another friend,
who will stand in the doorway with you
our Yellowhammer Cousin the
Heart of Dixie.
Hell Bull tell them
nobody remembers that all those pictures of firehoses
they was all turned on children that day
(the adults were all locked up from a week of protesting)
look away, look away
Firehoses trained on j.v. cheerleaders holding their
little brother’s hands.

O Birmingham, O Bombingham
Thy streets are so unchanging
Portland you would love it.
Nobody would so much as blink at you here,
for what you did.
No one would look away.
We would cheer with you, pray with you.
Oh Maine even the churches aren’t safe in Alabama.

O Maine, last night I saw Lester Maddox on the teevee
with some smart-ass New York jew
Oh Hell Maine, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

It’s okay, we’re here to help you
I can teach you Dixie over the phone
it’s such a lovely song, a truly lovely song
Oh Maine welcome to our club.

O Maine we stripped and beat Fannie Lou, we
wrapped a little boy in barbed wire and
threw him in the River. You can catch us if you try
O Maine, O Maine
do you want to join our club.

O Maine we are dead and we are dying
Our hair is white, our bones are brittle
O Maine we need new blood.
O Maine if you squint
faggot and nigger are
the same word.
We can just change up some
of our literature and you can use it if you want,
we don’t mind if you peek over our shoulder
and copy our homework.
O Maine please don’t look away.

O Maine we need new blood.
O Maine we are only green when summer’s here
but much pleasure can we give thee
O Maine O Maine O Maine

Don’t look away, don’t look away

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Gorjus, In Mississippi, In the Nation, In the South, Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.