Paris, Finally, Registered My Birth

Paris, Finally, Registered My Birth

In memory of my father, Sigmond Shore and my mother, Dr. Lena Allen Shore (Thérèse Lena Shore)

It all began in Paris

March nineteen, nineteen hundred forty eight.

I was born without being registered.

The doctors refused to announce my birth.

A three and a half pound baby could not be,

If born, as I was, in the seventh month.

For two days, my saddened father prayed;

Subsequent to the loss of his first wife and child,

And two hundred members of his family,

How could he then face new hope, yet, again.

As a partisan, he mined bridges

And railway tracks to death camps.

After the tragedies to which he returned,

He began life anew with a second wife,

Waiting to give life one more chance for rebirth,

To name me in memory of his father.

After two days, I was still alive;

Doctors agreed to register me, as born;

Thus, my birth was official two days later.

Registered in the annals of birth, 21, 03, 48.

My mother was grateful for my presence

Unaware I had only then sprung into recorded life.