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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Day 02 Re-remembering Éire

Where in the world are we?


I’ve found a nearby wireless signal to piggyback on, but the speed reminds me of the days of dial-up.

Re-remembering Éire
Green country peeks through the clouds
in my first view of unvisited homeland
like a memory of Maryland I once had
but with 10,000 more years of family blood in the soil

we prodigal sons return to the arms of mother
and she welcomes like we never sailed away like college kids
everything seems to be where we left it
familiar though fuzzy in reflection

streets welcome our footfalls, smells reengage ancient memory
our tribal namesakes cling to skin in the humidity
everything cries out for examination, comparison and resettlement
but the Jameson tastes the same

acclimation comes swift as it should
returning to America will be stranger
seeing how we’ve lost our way since the exodus
strayed from the better angels of our history

the lands we claim were taken
a plantation of Ulster perfected on American shores
and the fact of that bleeds out
in our unspoken ever-restlessness

Éire is where we've always belonged, and know it
agreeable to our constitutions, only accent marks our foreignness
so we drink a pint with long-lost siblings
both wearing the clothes of our ancestors

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