He’s about thirty-two percent English.
He speaks English.
He writes in English.
The English are a bloody bunch.
Their history, like that of everyone
else, is bloody, violent, murderous.
Therefore, is the language, Old
English, Elizabethan English,
St. James’ English bloody, too?
He’s about forty-five percent Swedish.
He doesn’t speak Swedish,
except for a few words and
a nursery rhyme.
He doesn’t write in Swedish.
The Swedes were a bloody
bunch of Vikings,
raping, pillaging, murdering.
They aren’t so bloody now
but still the bloodiness is
bred in the bone.
He could trace it back
to Cain, the metaphorical Everyman,
and whatever
was Cain’s language,
bloody as it was.
Maybe, it isn’t the bloody
language, but how the
bloody hell the bloody
words are used —
for bloody cursing or
bloody blessing.