Tree

understand this:

i may share roots with the tree

known as WCW

like the redwoods in Wyoming—

all intertwined underground—

but, by God,

but i will pick and choose the fruits

from Hispanic instance

despite what Don Cellini tells me:

i am a melting pot of Catholic guilt

and Protestant privilege

even though i've only been

to one Lutheran mass

in my life.

i am no Anglican or Unitarian

but by God i am alive

and i am writing as a man

unbound by rosary beads—

i don't know what Williams was

but i know he was not like me:

he was the seed from which the branches of my brethren

sprouted

and i am the branch that broke off

in a lightning storm.