Thinking of Dad

A crowded mission
in San Diego
eating happily
A thin wiry man
is managing to sit erect
drunk

booming out
I'm no goddamn Chicano!
... I'm an Indian!
I speak English!

Very cowboy sound, actually, like he's from West Texas or somewhere like that
Especially the way he said goddamn
Indians of the Old West
maybe Tombstone?

used to call the cowboys goddamns after their manner of speaking
Dad was an Old Californian I guess. He said goddamn just like a Westerner,
just like that Indian
who speaks goddamn English

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Copyright 2011 by Paul Conant.