Ellis Island
by Daniel Hughes
Late March 2020—quarantine days
No family in breathing distance—not for months
Yet biking to Battery Park each day
Breathing in the air of Ellis Island
Still a way’s away over the water
But now close by—nearly, daily—with the ancestors
Is one of those molecules of air?
Were two of those oxygen atoms?
Expired by my great-grandmother in
March 1912 upon arrival
(one month before RMS Titanic sunk)
on the Neckar from Bremerhaven
on the other side of the Hudson?
Breathe in that mystery; such a question—my wish!
Exhale.