This piece of paper
belonged to my grandfather
Who was a philologist
He taught at Virgilio in Rome
And lived on Via Flaminia, 125
The street the liberating Americans marched down
In an apartment that had
Diplomatic immunity
During World War Two
Because my grandmother
Was a diplomat
with Bauhaus furniture
Who worked for the polish embassy
While her family was being sent to Auschwitz
And my mother called me
To remind me of this fact
Just a few months ago
When I was 36 weeks pregnant with my second child
A boy I’ll call
Leandro
She said
“Paolina, I had no one,
my mother’s family died in Auschwitz
and my mother died of cancer when I was twenty one”
