WEBVTT

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I'd like to read next a poem
about one of my grandmothers.

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I've written a long poem
called "Both My Grandmothers"

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and one of whom came from
Poland, the other from Russia.

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And this is the story
of my Polish grandma.

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Grandma and the children left at
night, it was forbidden to go.

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In those days, the
Tsar and his Cossacks

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rode through the town at whim
killing Jews and setting fire

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to straw roofs.

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While just down the
road, the local pols

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sat laughing as
they drank liquor.

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Grandpa had gone
to America first

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and earned the money for
the rest of the family

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to come over.

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So they left finally,
the whole brood of them

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with a hired agent running
the show, an impatient man.

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And there were so many kids and
the bundles kept falling apart

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and poor grandma was
frightened of him.

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She gave the man all the money,
but she couldn't round up

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the kids fast enough for him,
they were children after all

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and didn't understand.

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And she was so stupid and
clumsy herself carrying food

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for all of them
and their clothes

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and could she leave
behind her pots.

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Her legs hurt already,
they were always

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swollen from the hard work, the
child bearing, and the cold.

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They caught the
train and there was

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a terrible moment when
the conductor came

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by for the tickets.

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The children mustn't speak or
he would know they were Jewish,

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they had no permits to
travel, Jews weren't allowed.

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But the agent knew
how to handle it,

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everybody got smeared, that
means money got you everywhere.

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The border was the worst, they
had to sneak across at night,

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the children mustn't make a
sound, not even the babies.

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Mama was six and she didn't
want to do anything wrong,

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but she wasn't sure what to do.

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The man led them
through the woods

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and beyond they could hear dogs
barking from the sentry hut

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and then they had
to run all of them

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down the ravine
to the other side.

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Grandma broken down
from child-bearing

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with her bundles and bad
legs, and a baby in her arms.

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They ran all the children
across the border or the guards

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might shoot them.

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And if the little
ones cried, the agent

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said he would smother them.

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They got to a port
finally, grandpa

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had arranged for cabin
passage not steerage,

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but the agent cheated
and put them in the hold,

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so they were on this low deck
looking up at the rich people.

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My mama told me her grandma
took care of all her children.

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How Jake didn't move anymore, he
was so seasick maybe even dead.

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And if people
thought he was dead,

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they would throw him overboard
like garbage, so she hit him.

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The rich tossed down oranges
to the poor children.

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My mama had never
had one before.

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They came to New York to the
tenements, a fearful new place,

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a city, country,
people in the city.

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My mama who had been
roly-poly and slow

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Poland got skinny and
pimply and zippy New York.

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Everybody grew up in a new way
and now my grandma is dead,

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and my mom is old, and
we her children are all

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scattered over the Earth
speaking a different language

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and forgetting why it
was so important to go

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to a new country?

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[APPLAUSE]

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