Saturday, March 9, 2013

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

***

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