communication (or: my ethnicity)

none spoke spanish in either 
of the houses my parents 
Natalie & I shared in youth 
nor in the decades after 
my Scottish-Spanish Filipino father
relented from this finally inhospitable 
earth. 

nor do we confess, remember stories and opinions 
of Grandpa Bob's German ancestry 
while pledging support in World War 
Two
nor Grandma Violet's endurance 
of soft Italian racism only 
the humble resilience mentioned 
in photographs 
bare of context & personal signature. 

it's why I love, adore, sometimes-worship 
American morality: these grades for 
honor 
pinned upon the uniforms of ordinary people...yet 
for the name of any good blood at all 
would seek a coherent language 
and inquire its neighbors, partners 
to speak them. 




**** 

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