have you thought about writing this down?

i want to tell you how it happened,
how in a pocket of schenectady, new york there was
a pocket of German-Americans. there were two camps.
the first camp was the pre-war immigrants, most
in their second generations, maybe third, and for
the most part they were fine, thoroughly
Americanized. the good guys. that
was my great grandfather, he
was an opera singer. he taught my grandmother how to sing,
she taught me
how to sing.
the other camp was the war and post war immigrants
the ratliners, the sons of engineers
the widened and flattened
they got on pretty well with the first camp
german identity runs pretty strong, at least
it did back then.
my grandmother told me she divorced her first husband
because "he told her what books she could and not could not read".
her mother disowned her. my grandfather,
her second husband, wasn't much better. but he left her alone
enough to read what she wanted to read.
she taught me
not to be afraid of spiders.
i want to tell you how it happened,
I want to tell you
how my grandmother married him.