Pariah Be A Gift

"Pariah be a Gift"

(On Getting by in the Deep South on Bad Days

and

The Past Ain't All That Diff'rnet from What We Gots Now)

Ain't nowhere I belong

Nor nobody who own me

Mean to say, nobody who know me

Seem to be the same thing

least as I can tell

Used to think

that all was just me

but the more folks I see

the more I reckon

it's all our lot

People's hushed mouthing,

always staring, finger waggin,

no chance to raise up--

nobody seem to notice you--

at the same time!

But all that there

gots a tendency to be

something else all together

from what folks means it to be

Dough gotta get beat

'fore it can rise

(the best bread ta me

is hard on the outside

soft on the ins)

Clay gotta burn

'fore that pot harden

People gotta be broke

to put themselves together

T'aint right nor wrong

nor'n  fair ors unfair

jus' is the way it is

flowing and sliding

unending

Bein' poor don't scare me

and not embarrassed by it none

either

Fat, ugly to other'ins, hungry

all that I gots a handle on

I is this here

I ain't dem

but I is me

Dis what I am

That's good enough fer me

an' others

ain't to be worried over

Cuz there ain't nowhere I belong

nor no one who own me

I is the one avoided

and disrespect like

and I think very much

I prefer it dat way

***