I'm not an Okie.

I wasn't born here,

And I won't die here,

If I have anything to do about it.

Send me back to Alabama 

Or Texas or Boston, Mass.,

But don't throw any of your red dirt over my ass.

My people were brought here

And told to put an end

To their language, their beliefs,

Their Medicine.

They were made to feel less than human,

And to survive,

They tried to pass for the less than human beings who brought them.

They took on their ways and their names,

Their diet, their religion,

And even their ball games.

But I am not an Okie,

And I don't pass for one,

And if I didn't have the two people I love best, my sons, 

Here, I'd leave,

And I'd leave fast,

And go back to Alabama,

Texas or Boston, Mass.,

And leave all this red dirt mumbo jumbo pride behind,

And find a better place to watch the sky,

A better place to live,

And a better place to die

Than here.

-jenn