Pour Mon Oncle Chéri

by Eman Sadiq

Every time someone said your name,
You would either glare and rebuff them
Or smile shyly and hide your face in the crook of your arm—

We told you to pray for us.
I don’t pray, you said. I’m not…

And my mother sobbed after you refused to believe she was your sister
And my father was floored when you described exactly what he had worn on his wedding day
And my throat tightened when you mumbled unintelligibly into your cup of tea and blew absently into your harmonica
And the three of us watched you rap on your brother’s door downstairs to ask for a plate of breakfast, only to be turned away—

We bought you tea bags, sweetmeats, fried chicken,
And we wished we had a place of our own
Where you could live out the last years of your life painlessly, sipping tea and munching on cake rusks,
However you pleased—

No one would dare to call you mad.

Eman Sadiq (she/her) is currently a freshman at CCNY’s Macaulay Honors College, majoring in History and Political Science. A born-and-raised New Yorker and Brooklynite, Eman dabbles in baking, reading, and writing. When she’s not hunched over a biography or book, she can be found strolling the boardwalk in her hometown, Brighton Beach, or napping. Eman aims to graduate in the spring of 2028 and in the meantime hopes to continue exploring the rich intersection of history, politics, and language