They've made a home in the borders

[sovay]

My poem "Colonial" has been accepted by Mithila Review. There's a strange chime of timing: I wrote it last spring during the protests when the federal government had just designated anti-fascism a form of terrorism, as opposed to the patriotism of attempted coups. The longer fuse was the information about my ancestry which had come to light the previous fall, namely that all my life I had been used to thinking of myself as descended from immigrants on the margins and suddenly there was a recognizable name on the rolls of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636. It does not change my responsibilities to this country's present and future, but it is the reality of the past. I am very pleased that the poem will have this home, especially now.

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[sara]

My family: generating ancestral museums we didn't even know about (as opposed to the ones in which I was raised). It's on my list of things to do if I'm ever up that way. My paternal side cousin went a few years ago when she lived in Boston and said it was good.

If we'd been on the first boat I could wear one of those gigantic Mayflower Society crests on my blazer, which is the sort of hilarious colonialist camp I'd probably actually go for. Sadly when your ancestors were like, "You go check it out, Bill, we'll catch up!" there is no participation award. I mean, aside from the continent. Which, let's be fair, is a pretty sweet I Showed Up For Colonization prize.