Diaspora
I lost both my lovely uncles
one after the other
to another country.
Jubilantly they had passed
their examinations
and once equipped with
white coats and certificates
they poised to join
the gloried institutions
only to find corridors that reeked
of church and pork
of estrangement and handshakes
panelled rooms where their name
stuck to the roof
of the English mouth.
I lost both my lovely uncles
one after the other
to another country.
Just when we thought
we had arrived home
our shrunken family once more
found itself huddled over
indecipherable letters
despatched from distant possibilities.
I lost both my lovely uncles
one after the other
to another country.
On high holy days I spread
my grandmother’s cloth
I lay out my mother’s silver
and I miss my lovely uncles
their blessings
and dreadful singing
their Jewish faces
blinking and flickering
in the candlelight
Jacqueline Saphra’s second collection, All My Mad Mothers was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and her fifth collection, Velvel’s Violin is due from Nine Arches Press in July 2023. She is a founder member of Poets for the Planet and teaches for The Poetry School.