from Glossary of Grief

god/ бог / bog

JULIA KOLCHINSKY DASBACH

on my mother and native language
it begins or ends with the back
of the tongue [g] pressed
against [g] tongue on velum [g]
it only takes three letters
single syllable to name infinity
“that which is invoked”

[g] awwww [d]
velar open-mouth songful alvelor
"supreme being, deity” lives in the mouth

saliva and throat though “popular etymology
has long derived God from good” nothing
could be further from truth or
mouth from *ghu-to- "poured" root *gheu- "to pour
a libation" swallowed nourishment or
its opposite “source of Greek khein "to pour"
the phrase khute gaia "poured earth" referring to
god a tomb in the mouth
“a burial mound”

[b] ohhhhh [g]
bilabial open-mouth gratification velar
"supreme being, deity” dies in the mouth

a bog is "wet, soft, spongy ground
with soil chiefly composed
of decaying vegetable matter"
the ground I was born on is not
made of vegetables but wheat

[d]

and bones and bones and long
ohhhhhhs moaning for someone
the mouth cannot *gheu(e) - "call, invoke"
the notion could be "divine entity
summoned to a sacrifice" god
my god my bog my bod my body
goddamn roots in the bones
and earth hence the French
goddamn godan "fraud”


PRAYER / МОЛИТВА

To not have a prayer "have
no chance" is from 1941
as though before "probability
that offers greatest advantage,"
chance, "thing of most importance" was possible.
Before Hitler invaded
the Soviet Union in June
before grandmother was
two-months old after
Vulgar Latin *precare
"ask earnestly, beg" after
more plurals and genitives more
begging than language
can hold after the parenthetical
I pray you, "please, if you will"
from precarious "obtained
by prayer,” uncertain, un- obtainable, ungiven “as
a favor,” undone, unbodied
the praying mantis doesn't need
to kneel to certainty, its
folded forelimbs "entreat:"
name me camel cricket, soothsayer,
rear horse, unname me “prayer,
petition, request” unbind
my spines from your god

story / история

estoria / small / shortened / meaning "recital /
of true events" / meaning / not music / story /
meaning narrative / chronicle / account / not meaning
counted / not body / meaning not hands / meaning
body / as story / as a euphemism for
"a lie"/ for the “floor
of a building” / the whole house / shaking

history / история

historia / "a learning or knowing
by inquiry” / not music / from historein
"inquire" / related to the body / related
“to see” / but not / the hands / related
“to know” / know there is
singing / there is / / singing / there
is song / in the body / in thought / in
history / as in "relation
of incidents" / (true or false) / as in
the body knows how
to listen / sense
"narrative record / of past events” /
not sound / sense
of history / from
histōr "wise man" / listen / the body
is a house / un-manned / listen /
hands are louder than mouth
listen / from histōr “judge” /
meaning "the recorded
events of the past" / meaning whose
body? / meaning which bodies
get to sing?



The hungrier the chicken, the better the soup.

Babuhska must have
whispered over the gas
burner for me to hold this

as truth. She never said
schmaltz or seared
chicken skins until

they sheened and crisped
enough to grind and shmear
on stale bread. Never added

enough salt. She taught
her daughters to season
this way, forget Mamaloshen,

boil the wings until
what meat was there
began to come away,

It’s all in the bones, she’d say.

The hunger and want
for flight. And what
came first? The chicken or

the bone? Hollow grew
before birds took
the sky, air ossified

in flightless ones. In us too.
So, in my kitchen, I boil
the same starved wings,

feed my children
rich, gold broth,
bulion, each spoonful

an inherited hunger,
glistening
mothertongue.

Julia Kolchinksy Dasbach (www.juliakolchinksydasbach.com) emigrated from Ukraine as a Jewish refugee when she was six years old. She is the author of three poetry collections: The Many Names for Mother (Kent State University Press, 2019) (https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2019/the-many-names-for-mother/), winner the Wick Poetry Prize , finalist for the Jewish Book Award; Don't Touch the Bones (Lost Horse Press, 2020) http://www.losthorsepress.org/catalog/dont-touch-the-bones-julia-kolchinsky- dasbach/, winner of the Idaho Poetry Prize; and 40 WEEKS, forthcoming from YesYes Books in 2023. Her recent poems appear in Blackbird, American Poetry Review, and The Nation, among others. She holds an MFA from the University of Oregon and is completing her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Philly with her two kids, two cats, one dog, and one husband. You can also find her on Twitter at @JKDPoetry. Order signed copies of her books by filling out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1GblDW6X0ARL1NLSsHTYhNQ_FrUqIZax86fw1GX R9Y oI/edit