The Great Ship

I saw it from the window,
I glanced up and saw the land,
It was the first land I had seen in six weeks
since the green hills of home,
Ireland,
not our land, my land,
but since the great hunger my land had been lost,
lost to skeletons that walked and disease that had a coach,
now here I am in Boston,
the place of peoples dreams,
here things would be better,
or so it seemed...
The great ship pulled into the docks and I was checked for lice,
the smell of salt was nice nice compared to the smell of death
and the smell of rotting food,
This land would be Great,
Yes America would be good.

By Michelle Bradley
Dec. 2000