A FAST FOOD BURGER Late last night I was in a bad mood, So I sought the comfort of eating fast food. I bought a burger with a side of fries, And I’m ashamed to admit they were both supersized. On my very first bite, the bun was stale, The…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Richmond, Virginia and raised on a thoroughbred race horse farm in nearby Ashland. My upbringing pulses in my veins: I have been blessed by both earth and animal. Shooting Holes in Signs Grandpa’s .22 bolt action, plus a pocketful of plinking bullets. Dependable,…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I used to be illegitimately Southern, living in South Florida until recently, now having completed my first year in the Tarheel state of NC. I grew up in a family that made fun of Southerners and now that I have gotten to know some of them quite…

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.” Jaunt Aboard the ferry in…

Southern Legitimacy Statement:  I am a native-born Oklahoma poet who’s work is inspired by nature, class, and life experiences that were shaped by my Southern family. The poem is inspired by a recent family vacation to Gulf Shores, Alabama and how a person might try to escape their Southern upbringing, but…

Flashing Mirrors at a House Built in 1742, III I leaned against the largest maple tree, planted hungry years before upon a leech trench, watching my going out of me at play and shining the souls of mirrors back, telling each other what we knew. I loved him from the…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: My wife and I own a 130 acre farm in Franklin, Tennessee. We have a parcel of horses and grow grass, i.e. hay. Before we bought the spread the only way to the house was across a ford. We put in a covered bridge over the creek and…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Though my genetic roots were not planted in Southern soil, a brief sojourn in San Antonio, Texas provided me with a life-changing experience. Southern culture and literature has been a strong influence in my writing. Five Poems BAD NIGHT IN VIRGINIA We dug up ol’ Leroy last…

SOUTHERN LEGITIMACY STATEMENT I was conceived on a houseboat on the Ashley River in Charleston, South Carolina and was born in Monroe, North Carolina first year of the Baby Boomers. I got my undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. My kin, Irish immigrants to North…

My Southern Legitimacy Statement: My parents hailed from small communities about an hour north of Baltimore, places where front porch sittin’ and strawberry eatin’ were the norm during the longest days of June. I remember my mother’s dad liked his smashed, with a pinch of sugar to make them syrupy,…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: All of my ancestors before my generation were born in Alabama. Because my father as a career Army man, I was born in a military hospital. But every summer, we went “home” to Alabama to see grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles. We moved to Alabama after my dad’s…

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.” Five Poems dos-à-dos “Oh, no,…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born in Florida, I’ve lived in Louisiana since 1976, 17 years in New Orleans, the rest in Cajun country. South Louisiana is strange even by Southern standards: We think Mardi Gras is a national holiday, that a Catlick church is all the religion a community needs, and that…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I have been here before and so will not redundify you with tales of my Florida childhood my young womanhood West Virginia and in Maryland. I’ll go right to Arkansas where I began living in 1972/3 and where I’ve gladly gotten back to now. There were those years in…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Like I said, I’m from a small town in Southern Kentucky. That small town is Harlan, in the Appalachian mountains. I’ve been here my entire life and my writing style is influenced by Delta Blues music. THE BUTTON I was searchin’ in my papaw’s old war trunk an’…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born raised, and breeding kids in Southeast Virginia, though I had to go to Buffalo to get hitched. Didn’t cross the M/D line till I was 19, and then for only a weekend. Unlike many, I know what’s it like to turn soil all day long, which is…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Vanceboro tobacco made it possible for me to internet you these poems. So cheers to generations that burned trash, gave scraps to dogs, sang Friday night gospel at Dudley’s Crossroads, and my unbreakable love for Dixie Queen. Bullet Holes and Grief There are trees in Vanceboro, North…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I have read, visited in NC and worked in Tennessee. Ed. note: Mr. Sheehan is a frequent Mule contributor and one of our favorite writers. Please welcome him back to the Mule for the umpteenth time. TWO POEMS I Who Lost A Brother and nearly lost another remember…

Growing up in the rural outskirts of High Point in the Piedmont of North Carolina, Clint Bowman spent much of his time in the outdoors finding inspiration in the wilderness that surrounded his childhood home. A 2015 graduate of North Carolina State University, Clint learned nearly everything he knows about…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in South Florida, against my better judgement. I then fled to Jackson, MS and am now settling in the Delta, where we may not have many chain banks but we have plenty of Waffle Houses and grit. Those Killed in Mississippi Those killed in…

The following is my Southern Legitimacy Statement: I just loved “Gone With the Wind.” For the longest time, I wanted to be Melanie. Now, I am inching towards Scarlett. The Knowable On quiet streets Barely kissed by the sun, A stranger’s sideway glance Reads more into us Than the overwhelming…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I live in quiet retirement in Chatham County, the gem of the Carolina Central Piedmont. I once taught history in Beaufort County, the pearl of the Carolina Coastal Plain. I am American by birth, Southerner because I cannot forget the past, and Tarheel by the grace of…

Kathryn Stripling Byer has not forgotten her southern roots. True, she was North Carolina’s Poet Laureate in 2007. True, she has received accolades and praise. True, she is very, very busy. But when the Mule contacted her, asking for poems. she promptly said, “yes,” because she is as southern and…

Southern Legitimacy Statement river town sleepy town cajuncreole spicy foods filé gumbo sultry air pop guns china berry trees joie de vivre laissez bon temps rouler Amen Bless, O Lord, this food we eat Fiber, carbs, even pickled beet Rack of lamb, corn on the cob Roasted beef, shish kabob…