We Need to Be Rocked

by Kevin Brown

 

We have anthems that oppress,
such as “Dixie,”
a song written by a Northerner
who had no knowledge
of the institution
that enslaved others,

a song sung by white men
with black faces,
mimes who should never have
found a voice,

a perfect song
for a pop-up nation
with a pre-existing condition:

the inability to see
the combination of cultures
that produced it
and its music,

which they still sing—
in their hearts,
if not their mouths—

notes as pure as
Thomas Jefferson’s
family tree.