Ellis Island Peom

Will Fontana 1/6/010
Immigration poem Ellis Island

Here I stand so famous and remembered,
I closed in a day in the month of November.
My doors are open, and are often called gold,
Once you past this door you’ll never be sold.
Thousands upon thousands come everyday,
The immigrants come through the NYC bay.
The second-class people never go through me,
While some people wait and never get through me.
I closed in the years of 1954,
But it didn’t take long to polish up my doors.
By 1919 more came a day,
They were looking for freedom,
And some anything they would pay.
Some people on the manifest I could not see,
It must have been they had been buried at sea.
Most people who are here, will never go back,
Freedom is freedom even if they live in a shack. Some people wanted the meals of Kosher,
Sooner or later they had it “fo sure.”
People over sixty rarely ever showed,
While their kids went away, and they sit back and sowed.
I was caught on fire, what an awful sight,
I thought to myself, this won’t be alright.
In 1910 a million passed through, So, I threw myself a party and played my kazoo.
350 babies were born in my hospital,
Eastern Europeans were so undesirable. People were tested for mental retardation,
But those people still had determination.
Car companies often paid for people’s trips,
The people that came to America came on humongous ships. There were schools for new mothers,
The people came off the boat one after another.
In Ellis Island there were harsh inspection,
When on the boat people often got infections. Some people came for a good education,
You could get a brick with your name on it for a donation.
While in service twenty-five million Americans arrived,
Back in those days people were short lived.
I am Ellis