GEORGIA

The Chattahoochee writhes remembering
Caressing the western hip of Georgia
Memories silently float inside her
Like secrets that must be drowned
What gold lies in waiting that
Hides asleep in the Blue Ridge
What fortune has been awakened
By a steadfast prospector's pick
Still the echoes of soldiers marching
And Native Americans driven out
Are a thousand voices and heartbeats
And souls crying in the wind of who we are
And the dead lie in their pride and dust
Wild-eyed southern men who love her
The past still breathes in the names carried on
And remembered in our children who will reminisce
Georgia has seduced many modern soldiers, but
Not without taking their loyalty and fidelity as her own
Her practiced southern smile has turned many to her
And those that sought to destroy her would only be back
Uninhibited she lies in the bosom of Dixie cradling her
Heritage, her people, her place in history.  For she is determined
To rise into the new Millennium from the ashes of
Yesterday's war.  The slaves have long been freed, and the
Confederacy never to secede.  But in this land of cotton
And buildings that rival the sky, she knows she will survive.
And maybe the rivers will tell each other the secrets
That history won't reveal.  In time we will realize that it's
The Georgia inside us that will endure for all time.

Copyright 2000 by Lyssa Aja