February 2, 2005
Fantasy and Fact in One Southern Childhood
by Louie Crew
I was bored by all
stubb-bearded cowboys
roping steers
to fierce yells.
A hidden violinist
always played Rossini.
I liked only
the serving girl
talking to the cook;
the whining wind
on a moonlit night;
the splashing plunges
of a small wild waterfall.
It took a Dickens bit
of brittle Murdstone
for the silver screen
to show me
just how lonely
white middleclass Georgia
really was.
Louie Crew is the author of 1,617 published works. He is an emeritus professor at Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey, and a native of Alabama.
