ANDY CLAUSEN
My First
Wise Man
Images
From My First
American Train Ride
& An
Observation At My New Home
From New York To Reno, My 4th
Year
Men with skin like chocolate
white shirts immaculate as my bed
sheets,
doing all the heavy work
carrying our suitcases
bringing the food
delivering the important
messages
the holy men who did the work
and bent down
and spoke to me
Broken French
with smiles of gold
Indians who'd never been to India
standing at the station
Denver snow on the ground - Headdresses
the
works, looking just like
American Cowboy Movies
I'd seen untranslated
back in the Old World
standing there pathetically
selling souvenirs of their vanishing
way
I went up & down the aisles
holding up passengers
in my chaps, ten gallon, boots
& two unholstered six guns
my new Amare-i-cun Father
had bought
ululating my only English
Steeck-Em-Up.
and the grey suited men with grey
hair
and pink faces would laugh
and tell their wives
what a cute little French boy
as they handed me
-the Belgian Outlaw-
a stick of chewing gum
when we arrived at our new home
and eventually moved
to my new Father's hometown Oakland
My Original Vision of America
confused
as new dad explained to Mother
how she did wrong to invite
the tired negro mailman into
the house
for fresh lemonade on the
hot day with his giant brown
bag
I recall asking him
what color is yr blood?
and the great beautiful answer
he showed me with a pocket knife
there coming out of the palm
of his big brown hand
-my first wise man-