What this World Needs is a Few More Rednecks…
OK, so it’s a song title that I stole from the Charlie Daniels Band, but the new set is all about this- Rednecks. Love it. I wrote a poem to open the set (complete with sweet southern accent and everything) about the etymology of the word redneck, but for some reason, it didn’t go over too well with the locals. I think probably because I made some fun of the Scottish, but what can you do? I made fun of West Virginians too, only seemed fair.
So here is the second half of the poem (ignoring the ridiculous line breaks as they are as they are so I remember when to breathe and when to rhyme whilst I speak)…
In West Virginia the coal miners
were just a bunch a whiners,
and the finer pioneers told them to step up!
Like Irish Mother Jones who twisted
the bones of the unknowns
into marching into Logan county
to TAKE THE UNION BY FORCE!
and of course, the source of remorse
gathered thirteen thousand thugs
which plugged up President Warren Harding
who threatened to send in federal troops-
and B1 and B2 bombers.
That made things a little calmer
were the sheriff not to defer
and concur to spur a transfer of bullets
in a split legit to deny the permit of unionization.
An aberration of the location of the congregation
for him to realize they would turn their behinds
right back around to cover the ground and pound
him limb from limb for the crossfire that killed their families!
Though the sheriff was outnumbered,
he conferred a recurred show of World War One-
and begun to rerun short spun aircraft
to draft a bomb shaft and laughed
as a combination of gas and explosives were dropped on the miners.
The foundation of frustration a creation
acceptable to the application of bomb powder
to cleanse US citizens of other US citizens.
The first and only time Government Air Power
was used against it’s citizens because, let’s face it,
it was a bad idea. However, it did back ‘em off.
Union leader Bill Blizzard
was a wizard of quick communication
and had some consternation and some hesitation
and called the next destination for the soldiers to be home.
985 miners were still indicted for ‘murder, conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to murder, and treason’ against the glorious state of West Virginia.
Which brings us back to the fact they wore red bandanas,
and so were called ‘rednecks’.
I thought that was pretty clever. The best part being the name “Bill Blizzard”. How excellent is that? Anyway, aside from the fact I read it a bit too quickly, I am curious as to why it wasn’t as well received as I hoped- was it just too complex? Did I not tell the story well enough with the writing?
Sx
