Owning Grandfather's Death
SUSANNA RICH
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Grandmother hasn’t seen him in twenty years—
he drank, yelled, didn’t know
how to talk to a woman.
He took their son Muki with him,
forced him to start working
when he was thirteen.
Fourth of July, Grandfather crossed the street
for The Herald News that taught him English,
and his daily Pall Malls, Almond Joy.
He lingers at the QuickChek,
buys gum (that treat American soldiers
gave him in 1945)—cupcakes, comic books,
little flags for the kids next door.
Crossing back, he is run down by a car,
thuds on the hood into the windshield.
His mouth is hooked by plastic tubes,
legs raised in casts, his head
bandaged like a mummy’s.
His left foot throbs in my hand.
He is warm. Too warm.
His wake, Grandmother sits in the back
sobbing, calling Pishta, Pishta, Pishtúkám—
turns to the women from his senior center
where he played pinochle,
tells anyone in her broken English
how he rescued her when Russia
invaded Hungary, how he truly
was a good man,
how grateful she is.
Uncle Muki asks me to lead her out,
so he can kneel quietly by his father.
SUSANNA RICH is a bilingual Hungarian-American poet and translator, a Fulbright Fellow in Creative Writing (Hungary), a Collegium Budapest Fellow, and Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at Kean University (NJ). With two Emmy Award nominations for poetry, Susanna is founding producer and principal performer at Wild Nights Productions, LLC. Her repertoire includes the musical Shakespeare’s *itches: The Women v. Will and ashes, ashes: A Poet Responds to the Shoah. Susanna is author of five poetry collections, most recently Beware the House and SHOUT! Poetry for Suffrage.