I'm a Spartan

my family comes from Sparta

my family comes from Nashville

Spartan is the new black

Johnny Cash wrote a song called

"The One on the Right is on the Left"

which is funny, not politics


in Sparta they drink Chivas Regal

they don't smoke in Sparta

only 3 people in my family smoke

the others paint pictures

and bathe, and fish and invest their money


my family has gentle skin

they eat lunch in Virginia

and build fires and bake soap

and prepare meat


my family doesn't knit

in Chicago my family works with their hands

they teach children to fight

and to swim, and fish and chew their food


my cousin who isn't Spartan

works in Phoenix

his brother isn't married

his mother smokes

i call him Jimmy

as do the other Spartans



the Spartans in Texas are from Oakland

they work with wood, and cars, and stripers

this was the first Spartan family i knew of

these are Mexican Spartans and they are Catholic

they love to shine, and to drive, and to bathe

and visit Oakland


in Sparta, Spartans wince

and flee and pray and swell

and bake and Christ and sweat

and California and money and hotels

and hills and Spartans

sit and eat and bathe and jump

off buildings and sweat and photograph

and farm and Sparta and names