jdubqca

poetry by j matthew waters

Archive for the tag “genealogy”

05 May 2023

road tripping in the republic


the preparations are endless at some point
you say to yourself what the hell am I doing

but you go on anyway
first the passport and then the online shopping

to places like amazon to find that knockoff wallet
the one you carry around your neck

keeping your valuables out of sight
credit cards & euros & photos of your people

back home you’re afraid someone has stolen
the only identities you’ve ever known

meanwhile you are transported across the island
the one your ancestors came from

before arriving you used duolingo to learn the language
but then decided fuck it most of them know english

I bought a new iphone to take better pictures
in case I come across the whole lot of them

the mooneys and the connellys
tipping ales with the doyles in a tipperary tavern





may two thousand twenty-three
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , , , | Leave a comment
12 Sep 2020
2 Comments

Dead Relative Society


Bill & Becky lived downtown
on Ligonier Street in Latrobe PA

Rebecca was born with my last name
but died a Beatty
back in nineteen o’three

William died twenty-three years earlier
the exact date unknown at the time
of this writing

We’ve been looking for both of them
for a good thirty moons now
and finally they surfaced
as if knowing we were looking
uninterested in dishing out one dime
to find them

Tonight we celebrate with champagne
and hash under glass
toasting to the stars belonging to them
for tomorrow we rest before moving on
knowing the key to their door
opens up the next three hundred years




september two thousand twenty
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in History, Poetry and tagged , ,
02 Dec 2018
4 Comments

portrait of a thirty-year-old orphan


for thirty years he found his way
from one place to the next
accepted by contemporaries
and admired for his insistence
on making the world a better place

orphaned at the age of three
he left his birthplace Latrobe
with a motherless family of five
his adoptive father
a tanner turned farmer
staking a claim in eastern Iowa

though a member of no church
his views on nature reflected
the good there is in man
all the while exercising charity
and condemning none

wherever he worked
innovation soon followed
his adventurous spirit a godsend
to each community he served

though illness plagued him
wherever he traveled
he never murmured nor complained
boldly facing the inevitable
crossing the dark waters
with a firm reliance
on mercy and love and destiny




december two thousand eighteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserve

Posted in Poetry and tagged , , ,
09 Feb 2016
4 Comments

the day of the descendant


I’ve studied and analyzed
so many
who have come before me
reconstructing their lives through
research and poetry

As I lay here daydreaming
(perhaps dying)
motionless (projecting translucence)
I bid adieu to friends and foes
by clicking my heels
and tipping my old gray hat
spiritedly introducing to the world
those we’ve yet to know


february two thousand sixteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , ,
02 Feb 2013
13 Comments

Researching the Madness


The lines go back far they do
lines drawn on a map
from somewhere in Pennsylvania
via Antwerp and Brussels

The little girl grew into an iron-fisted
Matriarch who rang the bell at five
to feed her boys the holiest of bread
while reciting hymnals of fear and guilt

Her shepherdless husband
followed her trail to Illinois
to a sleepy town her brother first discovered
years before boarding SS Vaderland

It was there tempers raged within
from the ethnically charged populous
but she managed self-restraint
and seldom raised her hand
against her own Motherland

But for her brother the chains broke
and wickedness unleashed itself
on Christmas Day
as the quietness of the neighborhood
exploded with a single shot of insanity

That dying branch still hangs crooked
on the corner of Rose and Lexington
its venomous DNA lingering
inside a sleepy little child


february two thousand thirteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in History, Poetry and tagged , , , , ,

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