Kenneth Salzmann

Genealogy

In that case
you might as well
create ancestors
of your own
from the glistening
shards of dreams
from flickering
glimpses
of strangers
on the D train
as if your story
were handed down
from father to son
then father to son
and then to you
and as if who
and what might
flow from one
generation
to the next
just like blood
might flow
just like false
memory
can turn
into flesh
into bone
into breath
into you.

Kenneth Salzmann is a poet living in either Woodstock, New York, or Mexico, depending.