February 16th
Back to your body of water collection
299/365
299/365
Zaltz Vasser (Saltwater), or My Great Great Grandfather Landed on Yesler and Never Left This Street
He sailed alone at 17
from the shtetl
to Seattle.
Those weeks on the water
he took hope in his mouth,
gnawed it down
into ambition.
He never went back.
Generations
of threads snapped off
between the tailor’s teeth—
yet when we dream
the taste of cloth
stains our tongues.
Zaltz Vasser (Saltwater), or My Great Great Grandfather Landed on Yesler and Never Left This Street
He sailed alone at 17
from the shtetl
to Seattle.
Those weeks on the water
he took hope in his mouth,
gnawed it down
into ambition.
He never went back.
Generations
of threads snapped off
between the tailor’s teeth—
yet when we dream
the taste of cloth
stains our tongues.
Rachel Kessler, Seattle
EXPLORE MORE
Amharic | birth | blessing | Chinese | drought and thirst | family | home | if water could speak | Indigenous | justice | like water | local waters | love and loss | Lushootseed | memory | Northgate | oceans and seas | Punjabi | rain | rivers and lakes | Russian | Spanish | sweat and tears | swim | Tlingit | toilets and taps | transit | Vietnamese | we are water | wildlife | Youth
