My Grandfather, Dead Long Before I Was Born

(Untitled, photograph by Vivian Maier, 1926-2009,
American photographer, from a collection of tens of
thousands of photographs she took on the streets of
mid-century Chicago; her work was discovered when
a real estate agent found the negatives in 2007 at an
auction of boxes abandoned in storage lockers)

We don’t lose our family connections.

MY GRANDFATHER, DEAD LONG BEFORE I WAS BORN

My grandfather, dead long before I was born,
died among strangers; and all the verse he wrote
was lost —
except for what
still speaks through me
as mine.

~ Charles Reznikoff (1894-1976), American poet