If Only My Mother Was Still Alive

by Margaret Duda


I was not surprised to see that so many Hungarians
were taking in Ukranian refugees and made sure
they had a safe, warm place to stay and plenty to eat.

As a teen, I never knew how many were coming for dinner,
but I could be sure that no one left hungry or unhappy.
First we eat, then we talk, my Hungarian mother would say.

My mother had always loved to cook and garden and we had
a basement crammed with her canning jars filled with food
grown in the garden she tended with love behind our house.

When she was ready to open her little Hungarian diner,
she chose a spot across from the local air base because
seventeen thousand airmen were hungry and lonely.

She became their surrogate mother and confidante
and the diner always bulged with airmen eating goulash
and telling her their problems as she made time to listen.

If she was still alive, she'd probably get on the first plane
to Ukraine to help the civilians hiding in basements
leave the country in safety, sending most to Hungary.

And then she would ask Zelensky and Putin to dinner.
First we eat, then we talk, she'd tell them, asking to meet
in a small restaurant which would let her cook the meal.

Chilled cherry soup with sour cream to start,
stuffed cabbage or chicken paprikash for an entree,
and for dessert, crepes stuffed with berries in thick cream.

She always felt that anything could be solved with talk
and kindness, but not if the people were hungry, convinced
it was hard to be compassionate on an empty stomach.

"Now what is the problem, boys?" she'd ask the leaders.
"You cannot kill innocent people. Have some more
of my husband's homemade wine, eat, and tell me all."

And soon they would be discussing a cease-fire and peace.
Her food and lots of empathy was all that she would need.
IF ONLY my Hungarian mother was still alive.


* * * * *

"If Only My Mother Was Still Alive" was first published in POETRY FOR UKRAINE by Robin Barrett (THE POET) in England in April 2022.

A daughter of Hungarian immigrants, Margaret Duda has had poems, short stories, and five non-fiction books and numerous non-fiction articles published. One of her short stories made the distinctive list of Best American Short Stories. She recently compiled a collection of her published literary short stories about immigrants, is working on publishing her poems for a collection, and is on the fifth and final draft of an immigrant novel. Her poems have appeared in Verse-Virtual, Muddy River Poetry Review, Silver Birch Press, and numerous anthologies by THE POET and Sweetycat Press and other journals.