What
Am I DNA Fortune Cookies
I just finished two rounds of DNA
testing
The results were shocking and
unreal
They revealed much of what I knew
And left gapping holes in my past
life
The one thing that I know for sure
Is that I am 100 percent American
100 percent Californian
100 percent Berkeley
Yes I am Berkeley enough
The tests say that I am mostly
Scandinavian
Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch,
perhaps Finnish and perhaps Laplander
That I know is real
The tests also reveals that I have
lots of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh background – also true
The tests hint at Jewish ancestry
also hinted in family lore
The surprises were that they
missed most of my native ancestry
Apparently the lost tribe of the
Cherokees are lost to the DNA data base as well
The test failed to recognize my
substantial German heritage missing my German last name
The test also claimed that I have
Italian and Southeast European ancestors
And the tests claim that I have
Eastern European ancestry perhaps Russian
And the tests claim that like most
people with Eastern European roots
I am part Mongolian thanks to Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun
The real surprise though is the
African American that popped up
That is also consistent with my
mother’s tangled history
the lost tribe of the Cherokees
ran away into the hills
and mixed in with Scott Irish
mountain farmers and runaway slaves
in the end the DNA tests neither
confirmed
nor denied my family tangled history
leaving many questions behind
almost as enigmatic as a fortune
cookie
or a astrological prediction
Jake Aller
Tags:
Poetry