He sports a finely clipped moustache

in honor of his ancestors

who picked cotton in Hyderabad

and cut sugar cane in Trinidad.

Mine were farming

indentured servants in Scotland

under the same sovereignty.

At the street corner cart

he sells me coffee

brewed from beans grown

in East Africa

once crown colonies.

On behalf of our ancestors

I wonder

what have we gained?

He earns a daily wage.

I enjoy a morning beverage.

Are these just reparations from

a lingering royal tradition?