Moya Cannon

One of the Most Foolish Questions…

I ever asked was of a young
historian in Florida.
I asked her that Irish question,
used to keep conversation flowing,
if she knew where her family
had come from originally.

She paused and said, It is difficult –
you can tell a certain amount from
auction sales records and cargo lists.

But one family, she said, had a song,
which they had managed
to track back
to a village in Senegal.

From Donegal Tarantella, Carcanet Press, 2019