Hiawassee, Georgia, 1976

In an old general store
on a small country road
near a trail I was was hiking along,
an overalled man
shucking peas in a pan
mumbled "mornin'" as I tool off my pack.
I had come seeking water ... and Nehi and chips.
After days in the woods, I had earned them.
As he filled my canteen,
he asked where I's from,
where I'm goin', and when I 'ad left.
We talked of the land
we had both come to love;
he was born here - I was just passing through.
He warmed as we spoke
of where I had been,
and he told me fond places he'd seen.
He wished me the best
as I turned toward the door,
when a handbill caught my attention.
The more that I read
blood rushed from my head -
"Grand Dragon, Imperial Wizard," it said.
On the counter it lay
on that hot Georgia day -
"The Royal Order of the KKK"
His smile expressed
what of me he'd not guessed -
"White Christian public invited"
For as a Catholic I knew
that he hated me too,
a fact that I never indulged him.
How could a man shucking peas
have this awful disease,
hating people without any reason.
How the black man must feel
with his daily ordeal,
judged by his color not soul.
Cross-burnings and hoods,
men prowling the woods,
Was this 1976?
Now this vision remains
clearly stamped on my brain,
a black and white photo forever.