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Folkston, Georgia, 1960

There was a pond behind
the Robert E. Lee Motel.
The Okefenokee Swamp
a few miles to the west.

Tourists stayed before and after
visiting the Swamp. Northerners
remarked about the Spanish
moss that hung from trees,

“It’s spooky at night, but beautiful.”
Down here there were other things
worse that had swayed in the trees
near the swamps. People don’t

talk about that. There are folks
you never see in town. For those
folks’ kids, a different school
way out in the country.

The folks in town brag about
how nice it is, how grateful
those other folks are,
as if they knew.

Could be any small Deep South town they all have a dark racist past
Some of us are old enough to remember.


This is good work,

The truth dressed up in a fine poem. This one hurts, doesn't it.

I'm going to suggest axing the last line. Let the reader "get it".

Or a slightly different spin: "how grateful/ those other folks are/-- or should be."

To me "as if they knew" speaks to white privilege. White people thinking they know best.

nice one...I echo Ken

I am considering dropping last line

thanks bob Judy ken

What's wrong in being white and privileged.
The only time we were the same level was WW2 in the UK
and even then rich people could buy extra food.
In 100 years whites will be the poor, Chinese will take over.
Enjoy while it lasts.

Billy, I agree, the last line might be one line too many.
You have to trust your reader to fill in the blanks, sometimes,
and by doing that they make the poem their own.