INCONGRU MAGAZINE
Poetry
Dispossessions
Today I was caught unawares
by an insight which briefly livened my lifeless day
like lightning does to a clear summer sky.
I was dining with my grandparents:
while they were handing me a plate of pasta
and a glass of wine
I, a visiting emigrant,
could feel both reproach and empathy
in their unspoken words
and their piercing glances.
They had loved their area,
and they probably still do,
with the same urgent, longing affection
of Renzo and Lucia in
The Betrothed.
They, who had left their native land
long decades ago out of necessity,
driven by hunger and job scarcity.
I left my native country
six years ago,
with head erect and eyes full of expectations,
purely out of choice.
I did it out of love,
not for a person,
but for a country, a culture, a life
rich in faults and wonders,
for that is what love brings.
You will find me engulfed in a limbo of uncertainty,
leaning towards three languages
and cultures,
ready to offer divided attention
to each of them.
Running in circles,
I feel like a child playing
ring-a-ring-o-rosie
near a market stall.
At times,
I reckon I am following in the footsteps
of Joyce and Columbanus, in the opposite direction.
As I was dining
with my grandparents
I fathomed that I was
a changeling,
swapped at birth,
though my physical appearance said otherwise.
My grandparents were talking
to a neighbour, a distant relative,
about cucumbers
and other farmers’ matters.
The awareness struck me
that all four grandparents of mine
were small farmers:
they spent their days sweating in the sun,
working with a spade, loving their crops.
And here I am,
a bookish girl,
half-scholar, half-poet,
who cannot recognise
one plant from another
in real life.
Are they really my relatives?
Are they really my blood?
Of course, I would have not fulfilled
the three-generation requirement
prescribed by Early Irish law.
But, after all,
the cultivation of the mind
recalls that of plants.
Tiziana Soverino is a bilingual poet, teacher and editor. Originally from Italy, she spent half of her life in Ireland, where she taught Celtic Mythology and Irish Folklore. Her poems have featured in publications such as Landing Places (2010), Boyne Berries (2012), Unapologetic (2022) and The Storms (2024). Tiziana is also the author of 11 academic articles, about folk medicine, the festival of Saint John/Midsummer and the Mélusine legend in Irish tradition. Tiziana strongly believes in social justice and in the power of storytelling. She loves walking, farmers’ markets, and open mics. She is also a bit of a coffeeholic!