68% Banana

My American friend

Spat into a test tube

And sent it off to alchemists, by whose arcane arts

There soon poured forth word of Irish rebels

(The founders of the 'RA)

And also of those English monarchs

Against whom they once rebelled.

A nomad of the Russian steppes was there

And possible descent from Genghis Khan

(Or maybe Niall of the Nine hostages).

My friend now has a coat of arms,

A clan tartan,

A family sword and

At least one ancestral tattoo.

Me? I don't know if I have my granny's eyes,

Or some great uncle had my heavy gut.

I don't know if my Mum's Sicilians

Were hairy-legged women whose flat songs

And raucous laughs

Echo in my tones today.

I don't know if my Dad's Yorkshire miners

Were mutinous like me,

And glowered at the boss from under knitted brows

And dreamed of revolution.

I do know that my roots, like yours,

Are long and tangled.

They meandered this world for millennia.

Stitching continents together.

Like you, when first I was human, I was an African.

Like you, at some point I was a fish.

Like you, at some point I was stardust.

Science tells me I share 96% of my DNA with a chimpanzee

And 68% with a banana.

My family tree includes the tree,

And the birds at the top of the tree,

And the worms at the bottom of the tree,

And the deer that eat the bark off the tree,

And the logger who cuts down the tree,

And the dog that lives in the kennel made from the wood from the tree that got cut down.

My family tree is every exhalation of the breath of life.

I don't think my ancestry makes me special,

Descendant of some Pharaoh or Archduke.

I love that it makes me universal.

You,

Me,

We,

All of us,

We are...

68% BANANA!

Be proud.