Four Poems

Susanna Rich

Mother Tongue

Grandmother read English like Hungarians
read Hungarian, sounding each letter—
four syllables for grapefruit—
grah  peh  froo  eet—
and she joked about Massachusetts,
sounding like messze csúszot—“it slid far.”
Sauerkraut, szarok rád, “Poop on you.”

My first words were in Hungarian,
Dörmögö Dömötör, my picture book—
“Grumbling Bear."  And Hamüpüpöke—
"Little Cinderella.”

Once in school, I became
Grandmother’s tolmács—
interpreting this new world,
that, by teaching her, became mine—
six decades as pupil, student, teacher,
and teacher teaching teachers.

I write about you, now, Mumchikám—
still forming words for you
as you formed my first words for me.
Drágám, gyere vissza—
"Come back, my dear,"
I have so much more to tell you.

Language                                   

gauge an angel

angle Gulag, Englan,

Guanan  glean a luau,

la la la.

lunge, lung, langue—

eagle gaggle Alla,

glean glee,

lull ague

gang nag gangle?

lag leg, gag egg

eglan anal annal.

unglue ♫na na na na na♫

glug ‘n’ glug age

gale allege

lug legal league—

ulu, ulu, ulula

Hunger

here urge   

       here-here

  huge urge

                energee hung

        hung gun unhung

 run  

               rue hen   rue ghee

   rue hug   

rue rue

          genuen enger

                           gene unrenu

         ruen

                        urgen- urgen-

        regurge

              uh

Knowledge

kneel on Now

on golden edge

kedge olden legend

wend on longed ledge

know no

down ego

wonk degen

dog ogle

dele low logo

geld lewd dong

kendo woe

owe we owl

we owl owl,

elk elk, ewe ewe—

eel wend eel

lend lede

lodge lode

log log

eke end

on knoll, dew

egg geek

donee ode

we owe dole

OK woke

woke won

glow we go

Author Bio

Susanna Rich is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Beware the House. As founding producer of Wild Nights Productions, LLC, she tours her performances of ashes, ashes: A Poet Responds to the Holocaust, SHOUT! Poetry for Suffrage, and her musical, Shakespeare’s *itches: The Women v. Will. With over a thousand publication and performance credits, Susanna was nominated for two Emmy Awards for her work in poetry and received the Presidential Excellence Award for Distinguished Teaching at Kean University. "Hunger, "Knowledge," and "Language" appear in her manuscript "Sword," written in a form she invented to test the Socratic thesis that words speak for themselves.