It's the way it is.

You're born here.

You live here.

You long for it when
you're away.

And one day
you'll die here.

That's what home is to me.

The neon wraps itself in the purple
     And Chattanooga
Monstrous in that all knowing glow
Yet you lose yourself in intoxication
     In enchantment
She buzzes to herself
The only conversation she cares to carry
She reminds me of that woman you eye
     In the local watering hole
Too **** hot to be all alone
But you know if you approach
     She’ll crackle and pop
     Her beauty is electric and fatal
Don’t worry honey, I’m just a transient
     On this Tennessee night

The debutantes unfurl their game faces
For Southern gentleman with fat wallets
Credence is given to long held family names with distinguished pedigrees
They reserve their special womanly charms
For the ones with plantations covered in Spanish moss
And men whose business interests in Savannah and Charleston
Take them away for weeks on end
The slaves toil in the fields and are tallied in ledgers like livestock
But these civilized belles only see the wealth of white men
And the servility of the servants, the burdens of back lashes of no concern
Perspiration glistens off cleavage,
Perfume strategically placed
Wafts through the air as an aphrodisiac to the affluent
The genteel manners mask a well of emotion
Rippling right beneath the surface
It only erupts as the slaves turn in and the guests say their goodbyes
The click-clack of hooves on cobblestones in the distance
Announce it’s time
Then dresses are dropped
Corsets are shed
And the night is pierced by the moans of lovers
The indentured servants take their turns giggling silently
With their ears against the door
Passion begets lust
And lust begets fornication
All manner of depravity is exposed when the manners are off
Women possessed of ****** desire
I have witnessed many things in my day
But nothing is more evil or more beautiful than a Southern belle