Issue > Poetry
Glenis Gale Redmond

Glenis Gale Redmond

Glenis Gale Redmond, a Greenville, South Carolina native, graduated from Erskine College and Warren Wilson College's M.F.A. Program in Poetry. A Cave Canem Fellow and an NC Literary Fellowship recipient from the North Carolina Arts Council, she is a trustee on the NC Humanities Council, a 2010 Hermitage Fellow and a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist. Her latest book of poetry is titled Under the Sun (Main Street Rag).

It's Complicated

Blood and root wind their way around
Piedmont back roads. The veins love
the land, the familiar curves, the sweeping lush
green and the secret fish ponds.

My Palmetto State sells both homegrown peaches
and hate roadside. Every time I try to fit
my mouth around a Carolina Allegiance,
I cannot own the stance outright.

I fly my southern flag sideways.
Riding down Hwy 25 to home,
I am still chilled by the grand dragon's breath,
stunted by the sky-size crossbar banners
draping the air with heritage.

Others bathe in homespun sun,
I feel shadow and ghost,
with only a little light escaping
through the leaves of the lynching trees.
I'd love to sample only the sweet.