Southern Legitimacy Statement: Native to Virginia and long-resident in Georgia, I’m as Southern as Southern can be. (Let’s not talk about the seven-year stretch in New Jersey.) A prominent Mid-Western poet once told me during a workshop, “I could listen to you read the phone book.”
Flatware, USA
If you have ever wondered how to tell
Compatriots of North and South apart,
You would be wise to pay attention to
The use of the expression, “Bless your heart.”
The former think the latter say it straight,
Conveying by the spoonful what is nice;
The latter, though, more often mean it slant,
Depending on the knife to make a slice.
