the density of history …

^{—Franz Fanon}

I’m an AMERICAN

I like

to be happy

I don’t want

to feel bad

I want

to feel good

like

everything is all

right, even when

it’s clearly not

I’m so

LUCKY

I’m an American

and so

I’m LUCKY

too

I’m so LUCKY

that anytime I want to

I can find something

to make me HAPPY

Something cheap       Something pretty

easy. 

I can surround myself

with people convinced

that everything

is GREAT!

Unfortunately

I was raised by

NON AMERICANS

(people who were constantly              challenging my attempts)

(to construct this HAPPY):

“That’s what’s wrong

 with you

KIDS”

my father would say

“You’re

too 

HAPPY”

HAPPY meaning not

that we were not suffering

(for he made us suffer)

but that we were

AMERICAN

so succulently

part of that

happy American culture 

where we watched

Andy Griffith

till we felt nothing

but candy canes