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

[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.

Reply from Doug

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty much the opposite side of town: Prairie Street is on the west side, a little bit north of halfway between the River and 8 Mile Road; I grew up on the near east side, and quite a bit further south. If you drew a triangle with the points in Downtown, Hamtramck, and Belle Isle, we were about centered in that triangle. I was born in 1954, and my folks moved back into the house my mom grew up in when I was 3; Mom was the last to leave, selling the house when my grandmother died in 1994.

Re: Reply from Doug

[gingicat]

Neat! There's such a variety of experiences. I wish Detroit could somehow be renewed.