The Aunty Poem (Mi Privilege Es Su Privilege)
I will be your aunty in the new city
where you have not yet met a soul
Come to my table and eat
Teach me your pronouns
I will be your aunty who wires you money
wherever you are stranded in this world
missed your bus your flight
When you’re passing through,
show me how to outline drama eyes like that
I will be your aunty with old-fashioned
button shirts and an ironing board
you can borrow for your interview
I will introduce you to whatever board members I know
Introduce me to your artist friends
You’ll make me look good at my next meeting
You can unfold my couch
Teach me golden hip moves
I will slip you any privilege I grasp
I am your aunty for life
Here are clean sheets,
and my spare key
Copyright © 2022 by Mohja Kahf. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 1, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.
“I simply wanted to write a poem expressing an ethic of what an older, resourced individual can do to redistribute resources and create care and family-like safety nets for a younger, under-resourced individual. The speaker may feel a little outdated in this world, but that’s where the poem offers a reciprocal ethic, where the person addressed also has the opportunity to make the aunty feel useful and connected with the energies they bring into the picture.”
—Mohja Kahf
Mohja Kahf
Mohja Kahf is a Syrian American poet and the author of My Lover Feeds Me Grapefruit (Press 53, 2020), among other titles. The recipient of awards from Pushcart Press, the Arkansas Arts Council, the Radius of Arab American Writers, and the Northwest Arkansas Black Democratic Caucus, she works as a professor and lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on the traditional lands of the Quapaw, Caddo, and Osage peoples.