Change
by Susanna Rich
The Moon listened to our chants—
Anyád, apád, gyeri ide,
Anyád, apád, gyeri ide,
three times asking her—
Send your mother.
Send your father.
The faces of coins we rattled,
for our Goddess Luna
to make our pennies
mate with nickels to make dimes—
mate dimes with quarters
to make silver dollars for Mumchy
to rub her thumb round
the face of the American Father
to keep his promises.
Anyád, apád, gyere ide.
Anyád, apád, gyere ide.
Susanna Rich is a bilingual Hungarian-American poet and translator, a Fulbright Fellow in Creative Writing (Hungary), a Collegium Budapest Fellow, and Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at Kean University (NJ). With two Emmy Award nominations for poetry, Susanna is founding producer and principal performer at Wild Nights Productions, LLC. Her repertoire includes the musical Shakespeare’s *itches: The Women v. Will and ashes, ashes: A Poet Responds to the Shoah. Susanna is author of five poetry collections, most recently Beware the House and SHOUT! Poetry for Suffrage. You can find more of her work at www.wildnightsproductions.com.