Grandmother Boards the Princess Alice

She sails to America to visit her sister in Chicago.
Don't cry; she'll return. She hugs her brother Wladislaw.
She'll never see him again. He'll be gassed at Oscwieczim.
One trunk is carried aboard the ship docked at Bremen.

She has a cabin; she's not in steerage with the Kashubs.
It's spring of 1909; she'll land at Ellis Island in May.
In her bag, her Polish prayer book and crystal rosary.
A priest says Mass in good weather on the afterdeck.

She considers entering the Felician order of nuns.
The convent in Krakow is close to family and home.
A year with her sister, then she'll enter the novitiate
But first see this America relatives write praises of.

She'll inspect the streets they say are paved with gold
Probably filled with horse piles like other cities on earth.
No sickness on the voyage; she's hardy Polish stock.
The passage is storm-free; she sticks to her room.

Once daily she walks the deck, breathes the salt air
And studies the wake of the ship parting the ocean
As it moves leaving no trail in the distance to Polonia.
Maybe she will marry and name her daughter Alice.

No time for hasty decisions. At eighteen, she's open
To winds and waves, the ebb and flow of events.
Her older sister Helen will help her choose aright.
New York officials stamp Zofia's Mrozik's passport.

They direct her to Union Station; the train takes her
To the windy city; then a streetcar ride to Wicker Park
Off Milwaukee Avenue, Little Poland, she could be
In Warsaw; no one speaks English, the food is Polish.

This is home after all; her sister bakes kolaczkies
They order kielbasa and kiszka from the corner butcher.
Toasts are made with Mogen David wine and jokes
Exchanged about this or that mishap on the voyage.

She finds Polania on Milwaukee Avenue; her sister
Urges her to stay and marry Konstanty at Holy Trinity.
He is tall and handsome, what's more, from a good family.
Alice she decides is a good name for their first daughter.