S. Worthen | Weblog

(This is the result of several recent conversations.)

No Yank am I, though Brits believe
this label, and it's a pet peeve.
I was not in New England born,
nor raised among the Yankee corn,
but rather brought up in the maize
and bright Midwestern city days.
Although no Southerner am I,
no Southern flag did ever fly,
nor yet am I from the North-East,
and so no Yank am I, at least.

America has Yankees, yes,
who with enduring happiness
embrace the term - they are not me;
I did not come from there, you see.

And thinking apropos thereof,
if I refered to people of
the British Isles, all of them,
as good, upstanding Englishmen,
a cry of indignation would
sound out: "You have misunderstood!
You Yanks, you overlook details
most critical. We are from Wales!
Or Irish! Scots! Not Englishmen!"
We all misunderstand, you ken.

If from New England we once came,
then Yank can be a proper name;
but if American and not -
we may object. It's a weak spot.