Mercer County

I came up out of the tobacco fields covered
in small red welts like chiggers under my skin,
tiny bugs of fear and paranoia that itched
for the calamine lotion of Ebenezer Baptist Church,

and I shouted out the hymns
(would you be free from the burden of sin)
while the ladies of the congregation
gave each other permanent waves
and stitched together patchwork pieces
of Vacation Bible School and come-to-Jesus fabric,
biscuit-making, jam-canning women who won prizes
at fairs for their ability to produce perfect pie crusts.
while their men traded feed secrets
and hunted with howling coon dogs.

In the pitchblack country night
I lay under those redemption quilts
chanting the Twenty-Third Psalm
while all around me the evangelical
crickets jumped and sang

and even they, it seemed, knew God.