Andrew

Andrew, how I wish I had known you

How I wish I could travel in time

Back to the old Mississippi

South of the Mason Dixon Line

We could talk of the “Lost Cause” together

We could dream the Confederate dream

We could talk about the war crimes of Sherman

And how hell must be filled with his screams

That is, unless he repented

Of the rapes and the pillaging and death

Of the American war on civilians

As the Constitution breathed it’s last breath

Andrew, you held your head proudly

In the photo that I have of you

Wearing your Confederate medals

With your faithful wife sitting there too

You were my Grandpa’s Grandpa

You were Southern born and bred

A farrier of horses

With a musket filled with lead

Many times I have sat and pondered

What life was like before reconstruction

You see, my world has become like the Yankee lands

Their culture came behind their destruction

So I keep your old photo close to me

Even though we’ve never met

It makes me feel close to the Old South

And one thing still better yet...

I know that I have a heritage

And of this I am very proud

I’ll hold Saint Andrew’s cross up high

And sing our anthem loud

Yes, I sure do wish I could meet you

And perhaps up in heaven I will

We can talk about steamboats and cotton

In your mansion on the hill

We’ll sing “Look away!” We’ll sing “Look away!”

We’ll sing “Look away, Dixie Land!

And remember the time when the cotton fields shined

And the time when a man was a man

By Kevin Paul Alawine