Patrinfanticide

A Poem by pasdepoisson

Musings prompted by a Halo 4 player with my dad's name.

Last night, my father shot me in the head.
Multiple times.

Actually, it was someone on Halo 4
with my father’s exact name.

Finally, I killed him back.
Headshot.
+10 Points.

Oedipus smiles at the irony
from behind his mask of Tragedy.

How funny it was for my inquisitive family members to find out
our family name might be from Spanish Jews--
coerced into patronymicide during The Inquisition.

Later maybe their descendants enslaved
Mexican natives,
La Raza Unida of which we were so proud.

My mother’s Aryan ancestors
look down from the cold stone edifice
of a lonely, homogenous Valhalla

And wonder what happened to the human race,
the victorious Germanic horde.

After Wotan betrayed his pacts came
Gotterdammerung,
God-ash washed away by the Rhine

This blood-mud nourished the earth,
made man strong by genes
with a will to survive

Our cruelty toward rival tribes
is now a mystery to many of us:
“How could we let this happen?"

Meanwhile, rival sons of Abraham
re-embody
an ancient sanguineous feud.

Maybe we should let Halo 4 settle this.
And may the best (wo)men win.

© 2013 pasdepoisson

Author's Note

Ethnicity can always be a tricky subject to deal with: I do not intend to offend anyone with this work, but rather explore my own ethnic identity, which is a bit cloudy.

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Featured Review

Perdition

Heavy subject but the light of your Halo is a killer backdrop. "God-ash" and "blood-mud" ...gotta dig deep if you want the root and it's nourishing seed. Truth in history beneath your rind. I loved it and yep..A tough and tricky cloud. Well navigated.

Posted 11 Years Ago

1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Reviews

Girl Friday (Sarah W.)

I find the first stanza absolutely magical...loved, loved, loved the intricate irony and the quiet wit. A worthy topic to explore...my own ethnicity is also a bit muddied; a little of this, some Irish thrown in, a little Indian, maybe some French, and then I come out as your typical "California Girl". I don't understand it, but what I do understand is that we are all related in one way or another. Well done.