Did you know, Bob

Did you know, Bob, that we were Jews
In Hamburg, then quick to Amsterdam,
Escaping Germany’s hyperinflation,
And then, by good fortune:
We were Sephardi, Hebrew in Spanish,
Of Catalonia, blue eyes, blonde hair,
Wealthy, with an Island off Peru, we
Lost everything but gained our lives:
Ellis Island, Elfrieda, Charlotte,
Theodore, Anatole my great grandfather,
Naturalizations, before FDR cur
The line. The bastard, winged right
And Patrician, the cow. Others
In the forests in Poland, running naked
On the edges of civilization, dying walking.
Dying, only when they walked, a sharp-edged
Physical ladder down, but reams, reams
At certain times, mass reams.
We? Free. Free.


by Anatol Cordua © 2017