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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Tate
James Tate
James Tate was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1943. He is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Selected Poems, for which he received both the Pulitzer Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award...
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My Great Great Etc. Uncle Patrick Henry  
by James Tate

There's a fortune to be made in just about everything 

in this country, somebody's father had to invent
everything--baby food, tractors, rat poisoning.
My family's obviously done nothing since the beginning
of time. They invented poverty and bad taste
and getting by and taking it from the boss.
O my mother goes around chewing her nails and
spitting them in a jar: You shouldn't be ashamed
of yourself she says, think of your family.
My family I say what have they ever done but
paint by numbers the most absurd and disgusting scenes
of plastic squalor and human degradation.
Well then think of your great great etc. Uncle
Patrick Henry.



From Absences, published by Atlantic Monthly Press, 1972. Copyright © 1972 by James Tate. Reprinted with permission.
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