(i)

See the map with eyes of a young child—
Tail’s Alaska and in Quebec its head,
Rabbit-bird its feathers flying wild
Pawing lands west Africa once shed.
Sometime in the late ice age it’s guessed
By the Bering land bridge peoples came
To Alaska’s tail from Russia’s west
When America was not its name.
South to the Águila Islet spread
Scattering across the whole land mass,
Starting down the West Coast it is said,
They would reach the Great Plains prairie grass.
Through a score millennia dispersed,
Myriad cultures that were one at first.

(ii)

Bags be the cowboy we would shout—
No one wished to be an Indian who
Mostly failed to win the last shootout,
Playing losers all thought best eschew.
Strange the Wild West myth had taken hold:
Menaced by fierce natives, frontiersmen
Trigger happy cowpokes brave and bold
Fended off those savages again.
We were unaware outsiders stole
All before them grabbing endlessly,
Sure their race outdates the totem pole,
Wiping out a world relentlessly.
Deep in our roles as boys we feigned
Cruelties of conquest so ingrained.

(iii)

Though we grew up in another time,
Thinking how unknowingly we’d use
Childhood’s counting out outrageous rhyme,
Squirm at words that nothing can excuse.
Cringe at eeny, meeny, miney moe,
With its heedless racist slur—but yet
We didn’t hear insults we should forgo,
Simply choosing by a word roulette.
How could we have known the hickory blow,
Worlds of master, slaves or Uncle Tom,
Cornfield, the plantation and Jim Crow,
Mob threats, lynchings, Faulkner’s Absalom.
Even if we had no ill intent,
All humanity still must repent.

(iv)

Land from where I knew my uncle sent
Things in Ireland we then couldn’t get,
A capacious fridge, Atwater Kent
Wireless in its maple cabinette.
Land so far away we didn’t dare
Use the telephone to keep in touch,
Spend a pound a minute calling there,
In those days a sum deemed much too much.
Land from on a liner cousins sail
Who we once drove hours to Cobh to greet,
It seemed they’d stepped out of a fairytale
Down the tender’s gangway where we meet.
Land to which in thousands we’d migrate,
Distant world of lives lived up to date.

(v)

Such a mix of origins will fuel
Braver talents as newcomers thrive,
Hybrid energy from this gene pool
Garners fresh abilities and drive.
Land of freedom, land of the Mayflower
Oceans, fertile soil, a great landmass,
Vast resources make a superpower,
Plenitude of minerals, metals, gas.
Market leader, stalwart of research—
Though at first America delayed
Yet not leaving allies in the lurch
Twice in wars it came to Europe’s aid.
Does such crossbred willpower to succeed
Leave behind the weaker in their need?

(vi)

I’m aware how even as I write
Thoughts of white supremacy are rife—
Migrants herded on a homeland flight,
Refugees still fearing for their life.
Yes, a tale of rob and dispossess,
Wealth the barons gained from Black slaves’ sweat,
Cinderella dreams turned merciless,
Yet for much the world is in its debt.
Like so many I arrived in hope,
Trusted love to load its sacred dice
Where from widowhood I would elope
Settling in my second paradise.
For this gift how grateful I still am
You’ve adopted me, my Uncle Sam.