Beats me, I can sometimes see
a gravelly bottom with sandy shores,
Viking helmets and speaking Spanish
comes pretty easy, like I once visited
and/or plundered there ...
Grammy (Anderson) Bray's Swedish ancestors
poured across the plains in covered wagons we're told
and settled into the ice and snow of Fargo, North Dakota.
On the other hand, Cornwall, England released
Philip Bray and some hardrock miners who made it
as far as the California Gold Rush and in time
found greener grasses in Grass Valley, California...
And grandfather George Bray was born there...
Jenny Menadue, the English and French wife
of Philip Bray played her role there too...
Adolf Viggo and Karen Marie Larsen brought my uncles
Kaj and Bent, and Mom/Karen through Ellis Island
from Denmark in 1923 so early parts of me
have seen far more than one shore already...
Dad saw England, France, Belgium, and Germany
while chasing Hitler and his losing troops
back into their bunkers...
I can hear the doors of DVC and UCB swinging loosely,
still on their hinges behind me, and the tides and sands
stir every time a new duck lands here
with new demands...
The tides and winds are still flowing/blowing
in and around this gene pool and things are still shifting...
©Peter Bray, 1/23/10 All rights reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment