Poem: "American Roots"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is today's freebie, inspired by a backchannel prompt from my partner Doug about his mother's family history.  It also fills the "familiarity" square in my 8-1-15 card for the As You Like It bingo fest.


"American Roots"


Francis Bieschke came
to America with dreams of
a place to put down roots.

He settled in Detroit, and
for the next five generations,
nobody moved more than
fifty miles away.

They became a clan,
neighbors scattered
across nearby blocks.

His descendants built
a house on Mitchell Street
where they watched the city
grow and peak and collapse
all around them.

It became a family joke --
"Some people have feet,
we have roots."

Comments

Lovely!

[dialecticdreamer]

That's what's happened in my life- I lived in a dozen cities over a dozen years, then spent thirty plus years in the same city.

I love it. Family history in places, just because some families focus that way.

[gingicat]

Where in Detroit did Doug grow up, and when? My Dad's family hung on in Detroit for as long as they could manage - my Aunt Bernice was among the very last white, not Greek, people to leave, and that was the early 80s.

They moved around the city a lot but "the house on Prairie" is frequently mentioned. Dad was the youngest, born in 1943. His oldest sister was born in 1925.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Let's hope they don't run out of Entdraught.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I like this poem; I know the story from your partner Doug, and it always amused me.

May I offer a (I hope constructive) small suggestion?