Harsh and rasping
clothes
is what they wore
from the salt
in the fearsome sea
not one moment's
peace did they get inside the
wet and dark
coffin of their vessel.
Skin was chewed off
the ropes they held and
the blood never
stopped coming.
Bellies stopped and choked
and then let forth
roaring and screaming
(seasick, filled with stale biscuit and cheese)
for nine weeks did they toil and
pray,
no respite
the waves were higher than the tallest
mast,
why is there a knife on the floor?
and no I will not bring you beer
I was at the part where
I was telling you
about our ancestors from
Holland or was it Germany,
I don't know for sure, but there
is an old book
and a picture of a guy in a
uniform that looks like a bellhop
with a small hat,
brass buttons and a mustache
So when they got to Boston, the
Irish threw rocks at them
Even though your Great Gran was from Limerick,
i guess that was later
but fuck those micks, fuckin' shovel monkeys
and they had manners and could play
piano and they would drink
beer after church,
your great uncle Willy married a
Cherokee woman in Oklahoma, and
they didn't let him join the Sons of Hermann
and he said kiss my ass
and she died of TB only
our side went to the funeral
so marry who you want
i dont give a damn
man or woman, just dont
pick an asshole
