Plantation Country

(album: South Somewhere Else - 2020)

An order that confirms a license
A beauty that disguises violence
And, oh, we were complicit in
Our soft, insipid silence
The language that defines the landscape
The land descends into the sea
And try I might, I can't unwrite
The world inscribed in me

You asked me did I know what I thought to be mine
I said all I had bought and built and stumbled on in time
And though I did believe the valence of my lines
A feeling lurked within, unnamed and undefined
I did find comfort in the dream of simple pasts
Or found accountability too tough to task
It's my good choice I make, a painful path not taught to take
A winning streak I best not break
I'm broken all the same

Inherited with my complexion
Little mirrored and no reflection
But my unmarked identities
Make claims at recollection

Stories that were told to me, oh, myths of modern ancestry
Within a fence kept carefully, they made my world make sense
Or was it history books? Were monuments just all it took?
The way the land retained its looks in preservation tense
We see these lines go sanitized, revised, returned again
Same stars aligned on different flags, on welcome center pens
Oh, oh, Natchez and oh, Destrehan, oh, riverboat casino band
Oh, sugarcane field 'cross the land around plantation homes

The images encode aggressions
In answers that evade the questions
False distance, fake nostalgia
And their calm, coercive lessons
The planters' sons, they make the laws now
The tourists disembark the planes
To go and spend their money
On a dream that nothing's changed

An order that confirms a license
(The tourists disembark the planes)
A beauty that disguises violence
(The planters' sons, they make the laws now)
The language that defines the landscape
(In answers that evade the questions)
The land descends into the sea
(The images encode aggressions)
Inherited with my complexion
(The land descends into the sea)
Little mirrored and no reflection
(The language that defines the landscape)
The images encode aggressions
(An order that confirms a license)
In answers that evade the questions
(A beauty that disguises violence)