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Fucking Coffee

from Seaglass Strange by Red O'Hare

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lyrics

I've been steeped
in my Jewishness.
As obvious as inherent
as inevitable
as air
as waves
as sun.

But in the hard far back
is Grandma Mary cooing southern
Sweet and sharp and liquid
Appalachian melody
She grew up in the Congo
And I have forgotten
Her name in Tchluba
She sang me happy birthday
Every year in Swahili
until she couldn’t.

Grandma was strong
She was swift and brave
And the stories she told me
Are as much a part of me
As the dusky feel of
Hebrew prayer
As the Ashkenazi lilt
I wear naked in my throat.

And I always thought
I had to choose.
I always thought
I could not be whole
Without being
parts of something.

No one is "part" anything
The gestalt cannot be dissected
Flayed flat
for your convenience.

Would you know
what butterflies are
If you only ever saw them
pinned and still?

Would you understand
the shape of trees
unless you saw them
twist in wind and sun?

You do not call bread
flour liquid salt yeast
because we all understand
that together
they are more
And more
And more than that
You cannot separate
You cannot delegate
I cannot say my
father’s blood makes me
anything my mother’s doesn’t

And this should be
As obvious
as inherent
as inevitable
as air
as waves
as sun.


You don't call coffee
part beans
part water
You call it
fucking coffee

credits

from Seaglass Strange, released June 7, 2019

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Red O'Hare Portland, Oregon

Red O'Hare is a Ashkenazi Jewish American poet from Oakland, California where she featured twice with Bay Area Generations. A product of Presbyterian missionaries from the Belgian Congo and Eastern European carny folk, Red has been performing poetry for 20 years. She works in a bakery and is compiling a list of people who want her dead. ... more

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