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