cut-up for family

You & I, we’re the culmination of the C---s, who first drove in like a spike and soon splayed wings like a stilted crane. We represent the diaspora wingspan, the reach of a family that gathered somewhere in Wisconsin – preening, the Midwest, the Dairy Land, tucking its leg in – who achieved bi-coastal status, dipping its full & healthy wings in the deeply volatile Pacific, shadows over L.A. and soon the slowly sloping Atlantic, a feather falling toward NYC. Manifest eager Danes who learned to read early, then to speak, then vote—

a voice, socialist voice of deep concern for our own by whom we mean everyone—

one more lesson, blissfully early learned. We are the independent and thoughtful gift of a sensitive and highly intelligent generation. We are the apex of their kindness, the pinnacle & the forefront of our family, worth what our parents helped make of us, and going it more or less alone, always hard-working, faithful to love. Possibly held a little too close, possibly squeezed until the rebel fire flared a little brighter in our eyes.—

Seized by obedience and early responsibility, I think I trust you most. The heavy side-eye of skittish Heartland Crane witnesses more you than small me, right under the fastened bill.