Identity Politics
Nah for real you really from Kentucky?
I been to Kentucky and you aren’t like
them folks I met on the border of Tenessee.
You really from Kentucky? ‘Cause you ain’t sound
like it; I don’t hear no drawl or twang or “kawhrn
bread” comin’ outta that voice of your’s.
Nah fuh reel u reely frum K’ntucky? Shucks.
That mean you ride them horses all bareback
and shit? You walk through briars without them
shoes? ‘U must be one o’ ‘dem religious types
beltin’ ou’ bIble versus an’ votin’ rePublican.
‘U mus’ be one o’ dem “good ol’ boys.”
Is you Really one O’ ‘dem Kentucky boys
ridin’ ATV’s and baaass fishin’? Rip roarin’
thru dem fiels uh bluegrass, drinkin’ lite beer
by’n open bonfire ‘n uh sundown town.
Goin’ do duh state fair with’n th’m blue ribb’ns.
Havin’ illicit relayshuns with’n yur cuhsin?
Nah. You CAN’T be from a place like Kentucky.
You talk too different. You ain’t got an accent
bouncin’ between poverty and antisemite.
You musta lived sum’were else, like New Yawk
or Denvuh. You been aroun’ the wes’ side, eas’ sigh
nort’ sign, Nawh’leans? Dey really writin’ ovuh dare’uh?
Yes sir. Yes mamn. Yes them. I am from Kentucky.
Fuck you for thinking so little of us.
2 thoughts on "Identity Politics"
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interesting how you captured the speaker’s accent ( a lexicon vastly under-represented in earnest written accounts ), and the stereotyping is funny/scary in how accurate it is. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked for my “expert opinion” on KFC when I tell someone where I grew up. Which I don’t blame anybody for, I have a couple of opinions on fried chicken, but I digress.
you captured the speech patterns so well the poem made me laugh