She took to a Traveling Man

Lord, she would have never done it 
if she hadn't got drunk.
Oak Ridge Boys on the radio.
singing gospel and tunes
some years back in June
Hotter than hell in Louisiana
summer in the Southland
Ice tea and shine, ice cubes
clink in my mason jar, granma
fussing on the low slung swing
afternoon shade as we stare out
across the glades.
The South as it will never be
I won't ever remember to ask
Barbara Sue to marry me.
She took to a traveling man
left us for some foreign land.
Come back home to my home
down in Dixie, where we are
outdated in our mediocrities
racial faults aren't purchased
but blood-bought, old folks that
modern times has forgot.
The colors are here for all to see
statues and gravestones and the
myths of our collective history.