I know of the place
\ngrasp the times
\nbut not
\nthe
\nplaces
\nlittle of
\ntheir times<\/p>\n
Russian Jews
\nmy grandparents came
\nto America as
\npart of the diaspora<\/p>\n
From where, precisely
\nremains unknown to me
\n\u2018country of origin\u2019
\nRussia \u2013
\nimprecise vastness
\nthe only clue on
\ngrandfather\u2019s
\nimmigration papers<\/p>\n
grandmother\u2019s only
\nidentifier
\nscrawled in midwife hand
\non my father\u2019s
\nbirth certificate as
\n\u2018Austro-Hungarian\u2019
\nas vague a delineation as
\n\u2018over there\u2019<\/p>\n
Both of them died
\njust before
\nI was born
\nneither met my mother
\nper same timing<\/p>\n
my grandparents,
\nmy father
\nhis lone brother
\nnot at all close
\ndad, forever
\ntightlipped about
\nfamily
\nmy only cousins
\nincommunicado<\/p>\n
I know of the time in
\nwhich
\ngrandma and grandpa \u2013<\/p>\n
Grandmother, Grandfather?
\nPapa and Nana?
\nZyde and Bubbe?
\nWhich would they
\nhave preferred?<\/p>\n
I can surmise only that
\nthey lived all
\nthe harshness
\nthat was being a Jew
\nhad to offer
\nthere, then<\/p>\n
Time and place
\nobliquely sort of specific<\/p>\n
Roiled by revolution
\nand hatred
\nthe region dislodged its
\nAshkenazim
\nto many places<\/p>\n
My grandparents to
\nNew York, then
\nMinnesota
\nChicago
\nback to St. Paul
\nfinally back to Brooklyn<\/p>\n
All the while they toted
\ntheir
\nmystery, misery in lost
\nsteamer trunks
\nand secrets<\/p>\n
At least I think they did.<\/p>\n
What they did as new
\nJews in America is
\nunknown to me
\nwhere they did it, I know
\nhow, why \u2013 pertinent
\ndetails
\nwhat the times were
\nlost to me
\nlost to time<\/p>\n
City directory entries
\neasy mouse clicks away
\nother answers\u2026?<\/p>\n
Where they
\ncame from what
\nthey left
\nI can only speculate
\nanecdotal stories repeated
\nby other immigrants
\npreserved in
\nvarious forms, places
\nI can find.<\/p>\n
The essentials on
\nMorris and Fannie
\nethereal questions in
\nsearch of solid evidence<\/p>\n
Being Jewish
\nI am learning while also
\nlonging
\nto return to
\nplaces I have
\nnever known to try
\nand understand
\nwhat I have lost
\nhaving never had it at all
\nseems selfish
\nyet nags at me
\npersistent in its guise of
\nclosure
\nI know will only lead to
\nmore openings<\/p>\n
Like Dorothy in immigrant
\nAmerican Oz
\nI feel there truly is
\nno place like home but
\nwithout even knowing
\nwhere home
\nmay truly be<\/p>\n
I am at the mercy
\nof a place I can\u2019t even
\nfind on a map
\nyet that is very much alive
\ncrystal clear and calling
\nin the
\ndeeper reaches of
\nmy soul.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Mark L. Lucker
\n\u00a9 2020
\nhttp:\/\/lrd.to\/sxh9jntSbd<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I know of the place grasp the times but not the places little of their times Russian Jews my grandparents came to America as part of the diaspora From where, precisely remains unknown to me \u2018country of origin\u2019 Russia \u2013 imprecise vastness the only clue…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":694,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[3796,3442],"class_list":["post-70702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous","tag-2020hr11","tag-2020poetrymarathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/694"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70702"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78194,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70702\/revisions\/78194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}