France came to explore.
France was different
From England or Spain.
There’s no popular narrative
About its New World,
Except that it happened,
And that eventually,
There was a reckoning
With its English rival,
As so much of their
Histories
To that point
Concluded,
Again and again,
This time
While Dramatic developments
Occurred
On two sides
Of the Atlantic Ocean.
The crisis
That was America
Became France’s.
That’s the story
That emerged,
A tale of two countries.
Before the Revolution
In North America
There was something they called
The French and Indian War,
Which is chiefly remembered
As the war Washington fought
Before the Revolution.
Funny enough,
The French became
His chief military allies
In the Revolution.
And then Independence was won,
And then France fell apart.
Spectacularly.
Then Napoleon happened,
And a result of that
Was the Louisiana Purchase,
Which greatly expanded
The scope of the new nation
And marked
The end
Of French ambition.
In Canada
There’s a province
That sometimes dreams
Of independence
And it’s the French one,
And its existence
In the last part of the New World
Still lingering in English concepts
Led to my ancestors
Completing the journey
From France
To the United States.
I still try to understand
How this past
Shaped
My present.
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