.of course i dream i fame, who doesn't dream of either fame or fortune... but... i'm sane enough to want to achieve that sort of stature, postmortem... what? with all the celebrity culture big brother *******? who the hell seeks fame while still alive? oh... well... there are the countless examples...

and why would i take an ancestry test
of my D.N.A. make-up?

i remember the first conversation
i had with the father of my
first girlfriend...

how many famous Poles (Polaks...
do i look like something akin
to an anorexic waving a *******
flag?) there were...

i forgot Copernicus...
i forgot Marie Curie...
i forgot Chopin...

**** i forgot my own name
when i saw my first girlfriend's
sister walk down the stairs...

why would i do D.N.A. testing?
i just looked at what we eat...
and i mean we, truly,
it's called haggis in Scotland,
it's called black pudding
in England,
and it's also called
czarna kiszka (black intestines)
in Poland...
the Vikings founded Kiev
after all...
i like Nordic music, take a guess...
take a while...

my maternal surname is
Batuk... which is a Bohemian
variant of the Polak Batóg...
so a mix of Czech and...
  Viking? the Goths...

if i had the time, and also the time
reference to reply to my first girlfriend's
father... while i was rudely
interrupted by the nymph that was
her sister... it's still a dream to me...
or what's called an arranged marriage
in India...

well... i would reply...
and how many Nobel literature
laureates... came from... England?
deathly silence...
you're right...
you're importing all this ******
post empire post colonial
perspectives and you have...
0 Nobel laureates in
the category of literature...

none!
zero! nil! oh!
yeah...
       oh... really?
                                   yes!
zilch... so zip-it-up, shrimpy.

i take certain words to heart...
sharpens my memory,
i'm not offended...
i just remember better...
you sometimes require certain
rubrics that are exclusive
and do not include
the rubrics of formal education...
this memory?

oh...
      2003.