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

Re: settled families and their people when scattered

[dialecticdreamer]

Heh, that's a pretty diverse family tree!

Re: settled families and their people when scattered

[librarygeek]

It is. My maternal grandmother did NOT like my father from the wrong side of the tracks, taking Mom on European tours and such, but when Mom had whooping cough and was hospitalized, losing half a lung, Dad visited daily. Grandmother finally conceded that Mom could marry "What's his face" as she called him almost until Grandmother died. :-D