POEMS/Lesson of the Mat-Maker
Lesson of the Mat-Maker
Inspired by Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 54
Your ancestors fled Russia and
Poland, the fire and fury of the Cossacks,
because they had to, because they could,
because they dared to take a chance.
Mine left Britain where work
was scarce, war was imminent,
abandoned their homeland, risked
the U-Boats, sailed across the cold, rough
sea in steerage to find a better life.
When The Lusitania went down
off the coast of Ireland, my grandmother
and her daughters, my mother four,
her sister six had been waiting in Liverpool
to board its return voyage to New York.
They escaped the shock of the torpedoes,
lifeboats that could not launch, terrors
of that swift downward plunge
to the sea’s bottom though fear traveled
with them when they boarded the next
available ship knowing they too might be struck.
This poem will appear in Phyllis's forthcoming book Finding Ithaca.
Inspired by Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 54
Your ancestors fled Russia and
Poland, the fire and fury of the Cossacks,
because they had to, because they could,
because they dared to take a chance.
Mine left Britain where work
was scarce, war was imminent,
abandoned their homeland, risked
the U-Boats, sailed across the cold, rough
sea in steerage to find a better life.
When The Lusitania went down
off the coast of Ireland, my grandmother
and her daughters, my mother four,
her sister six had been waiting in Liverpool
to board its return voyage to New York.
They escaped the shock of the torpedoes,
lifeboats that could not launch, terrors
of that swift downward plunge
to the sea’s bottom though fear traveled
with them when they boarded the next
available ship knowing they too might be struck.
This poem will appear in Phyllis's forthcoming book Finding Ithaca.