Sundown Town
is a dark place
laced through with hate
offers safety
with strings attached ~
don’t be black
don’t be gay
don’t come from away
.
The country twang
pretends honesty
delivers division
with tropes and lies.
.
We all come from here
from Planet Earth
we all need to eat
to speak, to breathe
.
We don’t want
your Sundown Town
named for slavery
and Jim Crow days
where black people
are s’posed to leave
before the sun
goes down
or else…
.
By Carys Owen
.
This poem is my response to a conversation I heard
on the CBC Radio show ‘Commotion’. Please check it out
through the link below (rather than searching ‘Sundown Town’
and giving more attention to an already contentious song and singer)
Carys Owen Poetry 