This poem originally appeared in ZAMAN, an arts & media collective dedicated to the remembrance, preservation, and re-evaluation of Mizrahi cultural consciousness.
Three calendars hang in our kitchen:
One begins in spring, one in fall
One in winter. The start and halt
Of a well-used car. A sundial
Someone keeps moving. Summer begins
In my Papa Joon’s memoir. On page
1940: a bucket of water to chase
The sewage from his house in Hamadan.
1970: British petroleum, moving oceans.
2000: grandchildren piled in front of a VCR
Watching Jumanji on Shabbat for the 8th time.
2019:
I can switch languages like jumping
Across city roofs, because they share
A grammar of time. What a blessing
To have so many words for beautiful
Moments: Chai with dates and fistfuls
Of pomegranate. So many women
To read about who pulled the fences out
From walled gardens. We are born
On three days each year. I am three women
And sometimes they talk behind each other’s backs.
And sometimes words taste strange
In my mouth, like the pale dust of “grandfather”
Or the palatial splendor of es-ra-yil or
The easy gutturals of Yiddish. For whom
Is my Papa Joon writing? For me, for me
It is all a gift for me.
Gabriella Kamran is a senior at UCLA studying gender studies and communication. She likes Jewish thought, feminism, Yehuda Amichai, and drinking coffee in Jerusalem. She does not like ashkenormativity, neoimperialism, or grape juice.
Sophie Levy is a student at Barnard College of Columbia University concentrating in Visual Arts, Middle East Studies, and Jewish Studies. Her work in painting examines the complexity of sociocultural life in modern Persian Jewish communities, often focusing on how gender can be performed differently in private vs. public spheres. In both art and writing, Sophie’s work explores what it means to “remember” a homeland that remains inaccessible to many people in her generation.
