The Vine That Ate the South

by Michael Stein

“‘Now I want you to tell me just one thing more: Why do you hate the South?’
‘I dont hate it,’ Quentin said, quickly, at once, immediately; ‘I dont hate it,’ he said. I dont hate it
he thought, panting in the cold air, the iron New England dark: I dont. I dont! I dont hate it! I
dont hate it!’”
– Absalom, Absalom, 1936

My father pulls over on I-95 to show me a wasteland of kudzu,
climbing over plants and trees,
smothering them to death.

I am not surprised to see it creeping over power lines and metal signs,
but it is discomforting to see siblings strangle each other.

Meir Kahane tells me forgive your father but pick up a handgun.
I tear off the pull-tab of the flier:

“Due to the fact that Nazis have achieved electoral successes in the U.S.,
the J.D.L. is offering self-defense and firearms training for anyone with a sincere interest.
There are 90 million handguns in America, and Jews aren’t the ones who own them.
CLASSES ARE HELD EVERY SUNDAY. CALL FOR MORE INFO
and to find out how you can help weather the storm. 658-6087.”

I look back at my father
and see that he is covered as well, his hand on my shoulder
(I was fourteen then), and I feel the pressure of his weight on me,
my body overheating from defeat and weakness,
and the hyena-voiced boy screaming “They took her
they just took her!” (I was fourteen then)
and when I ask for my grandfather’s tefillin
my father laughs
and asks why would I want to do that (the smell of dark aged leather,
the scar-like marks from wrapping around my bicep and arm and palm and fingers
and spelling out His name His name is My name) and I see my father covered in kudzu –

Michael Stein is a law student at Washington & Lee University and holds his BA in English Literature from the College of Charleston Honors College. He has been published in Sanctuary and in YNST: You’re Not Seeing ThingsMagazine, and is awaiting publication in the Tuskegee Review. He works as an editor for the Medical Literacy Initiative and is editor-emeritus for MiscellanyLiterary and Arts Journal.