Wave 2

Great-Grandmother was carried here in the bottom of an ocean freighter. She was twelve — seeking refuge.
did she eat oranges from the peel — carried across the same waters in the same freighter?
 
Once she’d grown — lived past the whips and the fields, married a husband, borne their children — did she serve oranges on plates like these? Recall the stories of her homeland? Sing the songs of the sailors? Or carry the water and scrub the clothes and work to forget?
 
When her children carried her outside, did they feel the tug of her roots? Or had she eaten the last orange, washed and stacked the plates, unplugged the radio and set her gaze upon the coast?