Come, Child (I'll Teach You to Hate)

She sat me on her

Knobby knee

Poked my belly

And said that’s where

A Yankee shot me.

I looked at my

Belly button

With a child’s shock

And examined my “wound”

Taking amazed stock.

That’s how Grammy

Taught me to hate

Soldiers wearing blue

And disdain all

They both say and do.

Her daddy was a *Rebel

And he toted

His hate forever

Passing it on to me

To lay it down never.

Soldiers in blue

Have marched far off

And never will return

But if they do

They’ll set these fields to burn.

So come, child, sit upon my knee

And I’ll teach you

How and who to hate.

It’s branded on your belly

It’s both our fortune and your fate.

*5th Mississippi Vol. Infantry, Co. C