Thinning Out Carrots
It’s July in New England,
and my father and I
are working in the garden,
thinning out the carrots.
“We got visas
for my mother and Josef
to get out of Germany in 1941
and go to Cuba. Instead
they went to Holland
to be with my father and sister,
who’d gone there in 1940, and waited
for their visas to America.
My mother said the family should stay together.”
He puts his head down
and continues
thinning out the carrots.
These poems are reprinted
with permission of CLAL – The National Jewish Center for Learning and
Leadership, © CLAL 2007.