NUMBER 64 In a nondescript tenement on a nondescript street, we live behind Papa's sewing machine repair shop. He bends over his machine as poverty bends over us. Machine shops line the street like tight stitches in a seam, leaning on each other to make a single straight pattern of income. WHEN I SING, WHEN I ACT I become anyone I want. I go anywhere I please. I say anything that comes to me. I make words dance. When I sing, when I act, I am in charge, I make the rules. I rise above this ugly Lower East Side, the tenement buildings that fold into each other, The Yiddish babble of fish for sale. On stage with an opera company, I am Barbarina, singing soprano in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. After my aria, audiences erupt in rambunctious applause. On stage with a repertory troupe, I am Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Audiences detonate in waves of cheers. They say, "Boy, can she act? And how!" SONG FOR THE PICKET LINE Every Saturday, Ohrbach's department store workers carry signs Unfair labor! On strike against meager wages against increased working hours at the same pay outside its department store on East 14th Street. Every Saturday, Ohrbach's workers hope they can make a difference. Every Saturday, people think workers standing up for their rights is a bad thing. They hurl Communist labels at workers. Every Saturday people yell, "Marxists!" "Reds!" at the workers. Every Saturday is Ohrbach's Day when police arrest the workers but this July Saturday I serenade the picketers: Don't despair! Carry on! Excerpted from Ethel's Song: Ethel Rosenberg's Life in Poems by Barbara Krasner All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
