but
we came anyway
a
conscripted boot maker in the czarist army
on
my paternal grandfather's side
and
the skilled hands of a tinsmith
on
my maternal grandfather's side
and
the grandmothers of a new generation
sweating
through many child births
rat
infested tenements
cramped
apartments above drug stores
mumbling
rabbis on shabbos
we
escaped out of the shtetls of lithuania and poland
without
documents
we
came anyway
we
landed with the millions
displacing
the original people
people
of the forest plains mountains
robbed
and starved but not defeated
a
vast beautiful land forced into servitude
like
a machine
like
a dollar
twisted
from its original mission
smothered
in the laws and rules of europe
but
we came anyway
to
join the wild rivers
without
baptisms
without
letters
in
the tongue of generations
when
we should
have
been listening
we
came anyway
--- e b bortz
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