Two Things About Jerry

Two Things About Jerry

When he was a kid, he could look out 

his bedroom window and see the Empire

State Building and as a young man he 

went with his immigrant father to Croatia 

and learned he wasn’t one of them.

I didn’t ask, Who are you? A Croatian-

American or a man who as a boy

looked out a window across a river 

at a New York landmark? My father’s

father died before I was born.

He and my grandmother came from Split,

Croatia to New York on a ship. My father

and his mother sometimes talked in Croatian.

Why not admit my ignorance?  I always 

thought it was Yugoslavia. I don’t think

I ever heard Croatian and Croatia 

till in my forties, or maybe even older.

When I taught freshman at a junior college, 

I asked them to answer the question 

Who are you? Jerry, a spouse,

a father of three daughters, a grandfather,

found, when he went there, he wasn’t one 

of them.  I feel like that where I live, 

which isn’t good or bad, just how things are.

Biography: Peter Mladinic's most recent book of poems, Maiden Rock, is available from UnCollected Press. An animal rights advocate, he lives in Hobbs, New Mexico, United States.

Image: Unsplash, downloaded (https://unsplash.com/photos/a-man-standing-in-front-of-a-wall-with-a-shadow-on-it-HxBd-DdouXk) 16. 5. 2025.

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