Southerner

I am a Southerner,
Lived my whole life
In southern culture,
We fry anything edible
And boil only crabs and
Crawdads and the odd yankee
Ego who may wander among us.
My morals and ethics are dear
To me and were formed by
What I saw and heard and
Experienced in northern
Louisiana in the last
Half of the 1940s
When I was a
Little boy on
The Red
River.
Now
I must
Force myself
Day-to-day to
Re-order my views
Of right and wrong to
Accommodate each passing
Year and the fads and real changes
To the reality of the world I live in
And the folks around me and
The change from a nation
Built on unity of its parts
To one of diversity by
Categories dreamed
Up in some ivory
Tower by egg
Heads
Like
Me.
I
Am
A Southern
Boy and far from
My home in Louisiana,
Southern Illinois and Texas
And even later in Chesapeake
Bay and on my way to a new
Home in sunny southern
California where my
Old ideas will need
Minute to minute
Readjustment
To a society
Unlike my
Old ways
But
Which still
Has Mexican
Food like Texas
And where
Human
Nature
Remains the
Same and human
Dignity and honor are
Still held in esteem
By all and for all
As neighbors
Respect
Every
One.