WEBVTT

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Next poem is a short poem
called "Naming the Children."

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Several years ago,
my grandfather

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had had a series
of strokes and was

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living in a nursing
home, and my wife

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and I went to pick him up
to bring him to my mother's

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house for a party.

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In the car, he
told us that he had

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lost a lot of his memory
because of the strokes,

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and his way of keeping his
memory intact or bringing it

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back was, when he woke up in
the morning, he would recite--

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he would count to 10
in three languages,

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in Russian, in
Hebrew, in English.

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And then he would recite
the names of his children

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and his grandchildren in
all three languages also.

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Jewish children,
when they're born,

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are given an English name.

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They're also given
a Hebrew name,

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because of the old story
that the angels only

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can understand Hebrew.

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Also, it might help
for you to know that

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when the Russian Jews--

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or any immigrants, I guess, came
over, they changed their names.

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And that name change is
indicated in the poem.

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"Naming the Children."

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He remembers good
night and good morning.

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He remembers my
wife, Gail, which

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is the wind, who sits beside
him, stroking his thin right

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hand.

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From back of the car
through the neighborhoods,

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he recites the names
of his children

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in Russian, Hebrew, and English.

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The names squeeze through
the damaged arteries,

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past the house on Odessa,
over the remarkable ocean

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to New York.

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Mischa will be Morris,
Hodya will be Ida.

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10 years later, my
mother, Beatrice Florence,

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stares into polished stone.

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At last, she sees herself nee
Bryna Fagel, beautiful bird.

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Which is how it is in America,
over the graves of our parents,

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how we are named.