Cultural DNA
I have to admit to it,
My cultural DNA is undoubtedly French,
I know it’s a dire trait
In our POC culture
To admit to it,
So put it in your pipe
And smoke it!
To return to my cultural DNA
As a child my grandfather
Used to sing to me
“ Quand nous chanterons le temps des cerises”
When we were picking cherries
And making me cherry earrings,
A lovely song with nightingales
And ladies in love,
Or so it seems,
Very French indeed!
Unbeknownst to me
It turns out that this song
Is the song of the Communards
A revolutionary song from the civil war
Sung by the working class
During the siege of Paris by the bourgeoisie
Dreaming of the good times to come
Once the revolution won. It didn’t!
Now the curious thing is this happened
A generation before my own grandfather was born
So he must have heard it from his father
And he sung it to me,
Like DNA it follows generations
It is part of my family history
I can’t ignore it.
Lucette C. Bailliet
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