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.