Genealogy

I carry you, a fleck, to Jamaica At the Chinese temple in Kingston

I am sick daily Victor leads me upstairs, says this floor was once

Nights, I hold the bed’s edges full of beds where men off the boat

a raft on the rolling sea slept, ate, washed sea salt from their skin,

You inside me, all this hope prayed at the jade altar with two lions

Sweet speck, what will you be? that too, had shipped from China.

Too new to be anything We drive to the old cemetery, not before

I say nothing Victor pays the wild-eyed boy who “guards” the car.

the way I stay silent He might hurt us, the vodka bottle he holds is

about my grandfather made of blue glass. His lips are red and sore.

who beat all his children I stand on my grandfather’s small grave,

with a strap pen in hand. I am allowed to write his name on since

The sun burns the cemetery floor the marker has been chipped off,

I am woozy marble sold. Wow crazy day huh, Victor says. An honor

I don’t know why I’m here to pay your filial duty to your grandfather?