The C is in Superscript

Catherine McNeill ‘23

Defined by the ancestors’ breath, the whispers in tongue reverberated through our lungs

Defined by the far away music of a last name, bloodied with ritual pain

Defined by the torn knees and muddied sneakers broken at the seams

Defined by the squeaks of wet shoes, sprinting along the brook, jumping the fence

Defined by the freckles decorating the high-bridged nose, crooked from the unhealed break

Defined by the chipped teeth, the dark circles, the bloodied knuckles, the scarred cheeks

Defined by the brotherly fume of cock-eyed belligerence, the evil-intentioned fratricidal madness

Defined by obstinance and the magnitude of the demise it will bring

Defined by the attitude, indistinguishable from any other McSomething in any other city with snow

Defined by the wit, and its waste, the failure to escape the chain of tradition

Defined by the stereotyped wrath, the blind confidence, the overbearing pride

Defined by the momentary lapse of hypervigilance, of the breath on the broken pane

Defined by the burden of this Celtic ruin… branded into our stomachs, stapled onto our griefs, and poured into our cups.