Different Slants

Talia’s Song

by Robert M. Katzman © December 16, 2011

(In honor of her Bat Mitzvah, on 12/10/22)

 

In 1 AD

Teutonic Tribes were gathering

In Germania

Warring against

The Roman Legions

And battling the wild Britons

Across the Channel

A Celtic people

Who painted themselves

Blue

When making war on invaders

So many invaders

*

In 1 AD

The Ojibwa

The Ohio

The Ottawa

were

Native tribes

Hunting, fishing, planting

in the

Northern Plains

*

In a vast land of

500 Different tribes

East, West and North

of

Great freshwater Lakes

The three Tribes

Dwelled in the

Endless green forests

For 20,000 years

*

In 1 AD

The peaceful

Basques

Were living in

The Pyrenees Mountains

by the

Bay of Bisque

Herding sheep

And speaking the

Mysterious

Yet oldest

Language in Europe

Even then

3,000 years old

*

In 1 AD

The Jews

Were a defeated People

Dispersed by the Romans

Adrift from their own land

Judea

East of the warm

Mediterranean Sea

And despised by so many

They would meet

Everywhere on their travels

Forever looking

For a home

Some went to west to Spain

Some went east

To Mesopotamia

Some went far north

To frozen

Slavic Kingdoms

And the Baltic lands

*

And more time went by

One hundred years

Five hundred years

A thousand years

And everything changed

The Teutonic Tribes became

Germans

In endless war with Europe

The Celtic Britons

Became

Scottish

Irish

English

In endless war with Europe

*

The Pyrenees Mountains

Became

France and Spain

Both squeezing the

Basques

From the North

From the South

But the Basques

Refused to disappear

As a People

*

The Jews

Who went north

From Judea

Were in hostile countries

Poland

Belarussia

Lithuania

And lived in small

Walled cities

Within much larger cities

*

The

Ottawa/Ojibwa/Ohio

Tribes

Remained

Where they were

As they were

In the forests

By the lakes

But when at peace

They married each other

*

Then the English ruled Europe

Conquering America

Except the Ojibwas said

“No, you didn’t”

And tens of thousands

Of what were now called

Indians

Were slaughtered

And their forests cut down

And the Indians scattered

Trying to remain

Who they once were

*

Then the Basques fled their

Snowy Northern Pyrenees

Fled the brutality of the

Spanish and French

And some went to Mexico

And later to America

Settling in snowy Nevada

*

Then the Germans had

A revolution

And thousands fled

Europe

Seeking

Peace

Freedom

Tranquility

*

The Germans went everywhere

And some found their liberty

In America

But the English never stopped

Making war

War with everyone

Because the English were Gods

And all others

Across the globe

Were destined to be

Their subjects

*

Except their children

And grandchildren

Didn’t know

England

And when they themselves

Became Americans

The English made war on themselves

The English Gods

Lost that war

To people they believed

Were less than themselves

The English were dethroned

And banished from America

*

The Jews?

Two thousand years

In Europe

Was not a long enough time

For them to become

Real Europeans

Because Real Europeans

Wanted them dead

Didn’t they kill Christ?

And hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed

But some survivors heard

About this different place

Where reason ruled

And the streets were gold

(Or so they were told)

And they boarded ships

Sailing to America

For a long time

Even today

New York City

Was their promised land

*

And two more centuries went by

Then, in the 1950’s:

A German-descended man

And a French-English-descended woman

Met and married

And they had a daughter

Soon adopted by a Jewish couple

A Jewish man and a Jewish woman

Both descended from

Byelarussian

Lithuanian

Polish

Immigrants

Met and married

And they had a son

In the 1970’s:

Their son and daughter

Met and married

They had a daughter

A Mexican-Basque woman

And an Ojibwa/Ohio/Ottawa Indian man

Met and married

They had a son

In 2001

Their son and daughter

Met and married

They had a daughter

Natalia

December 3^rd, 2008

*

Someday

In a school playground

A bunch of kids

Will be standing around

Telling each other

Who they are

Where their families came from

When they ask

My

Basque

Mexican

German

French

English

Ojibwa

Ohio

Ottawa

Native Indian

Belarussian

Polish

Lithuanian

Jewish

Grandchild

Who she is

 

She’ll smile her pretty smile

Flash her dimples

Open her dark brown eyes wide

Take a deep breath

And say:

Me?

Why, I’m an AMERICAN!!!

 

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