Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myth - Parquet Courts

I’d seen the bloodlands of Antietam

The shotgun shack in Tupelo

But a brick circumference left hollow by Sherman

Crumbling before me how it moaned

His shape swallows my recollection

That phantom silhouette implied

Strange fruit rotting from an airborne and hotter than hell

Is this the king’s last man I’ve spied?

I stood there beside my companion

Scratching a rumor he had heard

Do you have a gun?

What?

He said, yeah, you mean this one?

Straight down the barrel was his word

And I smelt the fumes he inhaled swiftly

Each word was hinged upon his choke

Like kudzu creeping up a state tree discretely

Forever bending as it broke

And I heard the jangling keys of Graceland

Ring from his teeth stained brown from coke

Drunk and stumbling like a man of distinction

They clamored shaking as he spoke

Of droves of pilgrims at his doorway

Of Reagan, Carter, Clinton, Gore

Fortunes offered them, refused routinely

This ain’t no damn auction house he swore

Black male standing around 6 foot something

Ebbs through the waves of small town blight

A minute coldly from southern affection

Collides secretly into night

Forgive those who trespass against us

Began as the dead intruders plea

Into the very muzzle I’d once peered into

He gives the last words he will speak

But that broken glass supports forced entry

Reminds his lawyer through the phone

What southern judge do you know, comforting gently

Who jails white men who defend their home

No souls were present for the moment

His bombed out brick walls finally fell

Lying face down in the throes of atonement

Checked out of the Heartbreak Hotel

He was the uncast shadow of a southern myth