If I were Jewish,
would I keep two refrigerators
to separate my dairy and my edibles?
Did some dark-haired ancestress,
skip about the desert, or pitch a tent?
A Suzanne or an Esther collected
the manna that One in Heaven sent?
Stoic and determined to escape Egypt,
did she follow the Cloud of Godly Mystery?
Did she trust in the God of Moses, totally
and heading north, cross through the
towering waves of the parted Red Sea?
It happened in the 17th century,
a family schism, some of them Jewish,
the rest Catholic-converted, they say
Our family name is inscribed
on a wall in Eastern Europe,
part of Hitler's history...
Who were they?
I need to know someday...
If I am descended from Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and I am free--
Of the twelve chosen tribes,
which one is the Israeli me?
Cecilia Vail Hampton
