Affrilachia

For Gurney & Anne

thoroughbred racing

and hee haw

are burdensome images

for kentucky sons

venturing beyond the mason-dixon

anywhere in appalachia

is about as far

as you could get

from our house

in the projects

yet

a mutual appreciation

for fresh greens

and cornbread

an almost heroic notion

of family

and porches

makes us kinfolk

somehow

but having never ridden

bareback

or sidesaddle

and being inexperienced

at cutting

hanging

or chewing tobacco

yet still feeling

complete and proud to say

that some of the bluegrass

is black

enough to know

that being “colored” and all

is generally lost

somewhere between

the dukes of hazzard

and the beverly hillbillies

but

if you think

makin’ ’shine from corn

is as hard as kentucky coal

imagine being

an Affrilachian

poet

Notes:

“Affrilachia” is reprinted from Affriliachia (Old Cove Press, 2000) and is part of the folio “Frank X Walker: Kinfolk.” Read the rest of the folio in the January/February 2026 issue of Poetry.

Source: Poetry (January/February 2026)