Tennessee
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They took more than time from you
Down in Tennessee
Where the land rolls rusted
And kudzu strangles the trees in green
Deformed like you by medicinal bonds
Blameless but shrouded in shame
They gave you more than bruises
Down in Tennessee
Where the mountains loom lumpen
Some storm-cursed earthen sea
Root-sewn to your bed
Where sweat stained wood and stone
Your shrinks sentenced you to labor in the loam
Tending the falsehoods you'd carry back home
They held you down
And peeled ripelike back
The curl-crested crown of a child
Planted their alien seeds
Cruel furrows in trusting clay
And we blessed those bastards
For the nostrums they sold us
The prayers they passed off as your cure
Your work raised you from that riverbank hell
Where out of love we damned you to dwell
Take pride in the scars they carved in you
For in their depths, a secret strength grew
Unbowed it abides inside
As you forge your faraway life
That strange iron guide you dragged up
From beneath the hills down in Tennessee
Where the land rolls rusted
And kudzu strangles the trees in green