Listening to James “Son” Thomas Sing Delta Blues
This article originally appeared in Southern Exposure Vol. 5 No. 2, "Long Journey Home: Folklife in the South." Find more from that issue here.
I think of blooming roots,
waking spiders,
bulky rusting stems;
of the digging and sorting
spring will do
if left alone.
Son Thomas singing on this
watery March night,
thick enough to fill up
warehouse doors,
fine screens built all over town
to keep out growth:
he tells us what it is
he's broken open every hour,
but not how many silver fingers
were replaced
after the ruin became too clear.