Lullaby of the South

I shattered the cradle at the crack of dawn

Crawled out to view the lake

Momma won’t come back, she’s long gone

With an empty bottle and a bellyache

Sleep, my brown baby, succumb to the beat

The moonlit drumming, the hopes of the villagers

Are as dusty as their bare feet

The silhouette of banana stalks

Stamps the bleeding weeping sky, the heat

Plucks beads of sweat from your cheeks

But I

Will remember to shatter the violence

That swallows your dreams in the night

Will scatter these seeds in the silence

That will burgeon into

Hush, sweet baby, this lush Branch

That will fight your fight

That will comfort you in the night.