Anderson, South Carolina

the first cotton gin in the world
the first cotton gin in the world
run electrically
was built in
Anderson, the electric city, the
friendliest city in South Carolina, the
first city in the United States to have a
continuous supply of electric power

the boy
the boy born there, raised there
darted about in the blue dusk
with his sister, to milk from the fireflies
the electric face-paint
the boy named for his father, who

flung him away, when the boy ran in to be enfolded
in his daddy’s arms, the father
who did not deserve the son
the son who
needed more than the name of his father, the

first cotton gin in the world
to run
electrically