The risk-takers

Each family harks back to someone
living or long gone into legend
who fled from inquisitor or ayatollah
from sniper, bailiff, blackmailer
lynch-mob or jobsworth
from earthquake, failed harvest
broken promise or hasty fist
from water rising, water in retreat
a lost fortune, a good name gone bad
a hut in ashes or a tower in flames

from Troy or Byzantium
from Berlin or Odessa
from Derry or Kosovo –

one ancestor who made it
out of the frying-pan
out of the fire –

perhaps it was your great-grandfather
perhaps it was your mother

perhaps it will be your child.

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