The magnolias still bloom
but no one tends the graves
The gentlemen have gone
replaced by men who shout
who chew with open mouths
and call it liberty
Appomattox was the grave
Reconstruction was the stone
and television, the final shovel
covering everything beneath
They sold the manors
for strip malls and concrete
traded reverence for revival tents
and revival tents for nothing at all
The planter's coat, the colonel's bow
buried with the men who wore them
Now the conqueror dresses his captives
in sneakers and profanity
What Zeus could not do
what Caesar would not dare
a merchant class accomplished
with a railroad and a bank
Somewhere a mockingbird still sings
over an unmarked field
No one listens
No one was taught to.
The magnolias still bloom
but no one tends the graves
The gentlemen have gone
replaced by men who shout
who chew with open mouths
and call it liberty
Appomattox was the grave
Reconstruction was the stone
and television, the final shovel
covering everything beneath
They sold the manors
for strip malls and concrete
traded reverence for revival tents
and revival tents for nothing at all
The planter's coat, the colonel's bow
buried with the men who wore them
Now the conqueror dresses his captives
in sneakers and profanity
What Zeus could not do
what Caesar would not dare
a merchant class accomplished
with a railroad and a bank
Somewhere a mockingbird still sings
over an unmarked field
No one listens
No one was taught to.
