I am from Ansonia a small town
along the Naugatuck River
where many people worked
at Farrell Birmingham factory
to make ball bearings.
I am from a father whose father
Oscar came t to this small town from
Bupst, Lithuania learned English and then
wrote letters for the town.
Oscar opened a men’s clothing
and family shoe store in this same small town
and then bought a few buildings
where other immigrants lived.
I am from a father who went
to Cornell University and got all A’s
but when he went
for his interview at Yale Medical School
they said the Jewish quota was full.
I am from a mother whose family
were immigrants too from Rumania
to Grand Forks, North Dakota.
When my mother’s baby sister
got into Yale in biochemistry
my mother and grandmother
moved with her to New Haven
and my mother met my father there
at the Bendix washing machine company
where she was an assistant
and modeled washing machines.
I am from eighteen years
in the small factory town where I gave
a sophomoric and incendiary
Bas Mitzvah speech a la Dr. King
about inequality and injustice
at the Beth Israel Synagogue Center.
Neither parent gave incendiary speeches.
My father was a Republican
because he was a small business owner.
My mother voted Democrat because
she liked FDR. They laughed about their differences.
I am from kind Talmudic people
who wanted and tried to do the right thing.
I am from trying to know now
what right thing actually means.
thank you.. loving your poems.
It's always worth reflecting on where we came from as we journey through life.