I didn’t know it was missing.
These stories about the people who became me.
My great grandmother rang two chickens at a time
One in each hand
Another killed a chicken hawk at 50 yards with a colt 32
My grandfather left his farm on Kansas to go work in a mine
In colorado
There’s a picture of him wearing riding pants
As a joke
He also used to send jokes into Johnny Carson.
My great grandfather went to work as a carpenter
At the age of 14
Because his father died of appendicitis
His son, my grandfather
Loved Orlando so much he annoyed the kids in texas talking about it
He won a school contest
By pretending to be a drunk
And talked about the dangers of alcohol
History is funny like that
Especially the kind you don’t know is missing
It can seem like it might be boring
But when you get into it
It’s like finding a crumpled old twenty
Deep inside the pocket of a coat
It spends just the same
He called his wife “Punkin”
She said “oh pshaw”
“Democrats care about people, republicans care about money”
“There’s fish in there as long as your leg”
“Don’t worry about it son, your mother cried for the whole first year of our marriage”
“If I build it, it stays built”
Another crumpled twenty
Another pocket
I didn’t even know it was something I was missing
Until it came and found me.