and two thirds of the way up the wall
two long boards screwed into the tiles,
still retaining a suggestion of clothes-lines

this is what you see today,
and the one thing we know
is that this is not
the way it was
at the turn of the
century

but this is what is left for us to see,
and we have nothing else
to exhibit

nothing looks as much like a forsaken place
as another forsaken place

this could he a storeroom anywhere
any abandoned factory
any vacated depot
consumed by dampness and rust,

warehouses that have collapsed,
mills where for ages no wheels have turned,
derelict granaries, silos overrun
with weeds

but it was here,
with New York within swimming distance,
so close to the promised life

this was the Golden Door

right there, in sight, almost at hand,
was the America of a thousand dreams,
the land of freedom where all men were equal,
the place where everyone could finally have his chance,
the new world, the free world,
where life could start over again

but this was not America, not yet,
only an extension of the boat,
a remnant of the old world
where nothing had yet been assured,
where those who had left
still hadn’t arrived,
where those who had given up everything
had so far obtained nothing

and where there was nothing else to do but wait,
hoping that things would go well,
that no one would steal your luggage or money,
that your papers were in order,
that the doctors wouldn’t detain you,
that family groups wouldn’t be broken up,
that someone would be there to meet you

the legend of the Golem relates that it is
enough to write the one word Emeth on the statue’s
forehead to give it life and compel its obedience,
and enough to erase one letter — the first —
to turn it back to dust

on Ellis Island, fate also appeared in the guise of
an alphabet. Public Health officers gave arrivals a rapid
examination. On the shoulders of doubtful cases, they chalked a
letter indicating the nature of the suspected disorder:

C: chest, or tuberculosis
E: eyes
F: face
H: heart
K: hernia
L: lameness
SC: scalp
TC: trachoma
X: feeblemindedness

individuals thus marked were subjected
to much more thorough examination. They were detained
on the island
for additional hours, days,
or weeks, and sometimes shipped back

once again the guide is giving his account
of the emigrants’ arrival, how they climbed the stairs,
the medical checkups, the eye tests, the letters chalked
on the shoulders of the possibly sick, the endless waiting,
the rapid-fire list of twenty-nine questions

he walks back and forth as he speaks,
and the visitors watch him

they’ve known these stories forever

they know that when Irving Berlin arrived at Ellis Island
he was called Israel Beilin,
that Samuel Goldwyn came through Ellis Island
as well as Ben Shahn,
and that Fiorello LaGuardia was an interpreter here

they’ve heard the story of Schon Vergessen
and the one about the three brothers
who in turn received the names
Appletree, Applebaum, and Appleberg