Catherine McNeill ’23
Defined by the ancestors’ breath, the whispers in tongue, reverberated through our lungs
Defined by the far away music of a last name, bloodied with ritual pain
Defined by the torn knees and muddied sneakers, broken at the seams
Defined by the squeaks of wet shoes, sprinting along the brook, jumping the fence
Defined by the freckles decorating the high bridged nose, crooked from the unhealed break
Defined by the chipped teeth, the dark circles, the bloodied knuckles, the scarred cheeks
Defined by the brotherly fume of cock-eyed belligerence, the evil-intentioned fratricidal madness
Defined by the obstinance, and the magnitude of the demise it will bring
Defined by the attitude, indistinguishable from any other McSomething, in any other city with snow
Defined by the wit, and its waste, the failure to escape the chain of tradition
Defined by the stereotyped wrath, the blind confidence, the overbearing pride
Defined by the momentary lapse of hypervigilance, of the breath on the broken pane
Defined by the burden of this Keltic ruin… branded into our stomachs, stapled onto our griefs, and poured into our cups.