being a future ancestor

a quarter newfie
half-witless, half-hopeful

canada has july 4th too

and every canadian
has a memory
like an elephant

(with smaller ears,
of course)

this is my heritage:
shortsleeved pants
the father -- the son -- the holy spare-rib.
anti-q's

a plastic cow (one leg broken, and held on by band-aid)
foreskin in an yellowed envelope
one rand and a half-cent piece.

...

that is my heritage -- iced cream,
sun turtles, black mambas, boomslang
monkeygland sauce, boerwoers, chaka zulu

a broken swiss army knife, a worn down
cigar knife, a chipped wooden spoon
a doll house, a mahogany hope chest

my heritage there -- Linda Kane's sequoia
tickaboo, Utah
Ruby's Inn, Missoula Montana.

Ida Mae and Joe's Roadside Stand
an Alligator playing a saxophone
Jim Henson's transmission guy in Greenville Mississippi.

i am a quarter Irish
my eyes fake green
sometimes int he afternoon

leprechaun's kiss my ass
and every pot
is full of gold.

canada has may 5th too

and every canadian
is like a bison

strong
with a six foot vertical leap
(only in centimeters)

This is my heritage:
Love. Charity. Kindness.

monkey shit on a red bmw
at the Afrikaaner Monument