Callie Carroll - Gone Rampant in Your Absence

You returned from the North with good news-
Little Thomas, little John, found-
in the sheltering arms of Protestant parents,
orphans of the Boyne.
Allowing your family tree
to remain stately, strong, and proud.
O'Carroll to Carroll,
Edwards, Alberts, and Johns, (trailing Mary Janes)
following a straight and admirable path
across the drink to Maryland.

Arduously researched, meticulously inked-
A mighty shelter, whose roots firmly anchor you.

My bad news, no news to you at all,
my family tree in disarray-
Junior lost in a pauper's grave.
Errant branches gone astray-
a bramble of tangled growth
badly in need of pruning,
plagued by pestilence,
gone rampant in your absence.

A gamy stew of Missouri horse thieves,
seductive wenches, and a noisy mob
with a thirst they cannot explain.
Artists without canvases,
Poets without paper,
Singers of curiously strident tunes
(which i croon in secret at night) .

I'm heir to a brew of rogue genes
from no place in particular following
a crooked path to nowhere-
Bewildered to be there upon arrival.

Callie Carroll

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/gone-rampant-in-your-absence/