Fast Day 23 November 8, 2007 {My Southern Rose}

A day early.

My Southern Rose


The willows stand as stiff daguerrotypes:
Generals of the War
between the States; their beards so full
and majestic in their stance.
They maintain their verdant burden and
bow low in gallant boughs!

chorus
My rose of Maryland! Bloom forever!
The South’s own herbal honey!
The Balm of Appalachia;
sweet liquor of Antietam!



The wild flowers strewn up to the sky;
Soldiers of the war;
eyes bright with youth and filled with hope:
adolescent gods to be;
Within their temples they stand in silent witness,
like reeds in ponds unnumbered.

chorus
My rose of Maryland! Bloom forever!
The South’s own herbal honey!
The Balm of Appalachia;
sweet liquor of Potomac!



We’re coming east from Morgantown,
from the Cumberland.
We stop to eat at Hancock where you can stand
and throw a stone apiece
into Pennsylvania’s green fields
and into West Virginia’s land.

chorus
My rose of Maryland! Bloom forever!
The South’s own herbal honey!
The Balm of Appalachia;
sweet liquor of Patapsco!