My grandfather Moritz, a barber, was

Married to Gazela

When he was 21 and she was 18.

They said goodbye forever to their shtetl in Romania

And traveled

Through Austria-Hungary to Germany

And then England

Talking with other Jews well met on the road, having

Just enough money in their purse to buy

Steerage tickets in Liverpool on the U.S.S. Lake Champlain.

On New Year’s Eve 1900 they landed in America

Along with a shipload of other European peasants all

Wrapped in shawls and woolen coats

Carrying babies and whatever.

A panoply of hand to mouth people

With issues.