This was in "Today in Mississippi,"
the EMEPA and CEPA (power company)
paper today. I normally write free verse, just thought rhyme suited
this poem and publication better.
The Magic of Mississippi
depends on many things—
cricket songs, watermelons,
and front porch swings;
prayers whispered inside
a little country church,
our deep, muddy river,
red clay and fertile dirt;
cattle in the pasture,
catfish ponds and pines,
the smell of honeysuckles,
plums and muscadines;
the orange harvest moon,
soulful music in the air,
a white magnolia blossom,
and days with little care.