How to speak southern
by robert martinSpeak like it’s music,
Speak like magnolia blossoms
that are too sweet,
and large, and in full bloom,
Speak like it’s vinegar, and brown sugar
on cooked collards full of iron,
speak like grits, stone ground,
peppered on a plate,
waiting for butter,
chew your words,
listening from your mother’s knee,
modulate your tone,
the softness of your pitch,
stretching, and pulling
from the rise and fall
of mountains,
and plains,
from wagons of cotton,
and corn, and tobacco,
pull from the people you love,
pull from the marrow picked bones
of tradition, and family, and things past,
pull from all the things you knew before you were born,
now carry it on like a river,
and the river don’t talk:
it just carries it on and on and on,
sing from the music,
sing from the jawbone of the earth.
Reactions
