And at a family meal at a Roppongi restaurant Where the napkins are origami cranes but there is Western cutlery to show progress My cousins whisper that when I finish I should shout “Gotsan deshita!” which is what gangsters say When they’re done eating So I yell it at the end of dinner the whole family roars with laughter And to feed the lion More bad words trip off my tongue Everything I’ve learned from J-dramas during our stay “Oi, nandazo!” And through it all I meet the eyes of my mother Because hasn’t she spent my childhood Nurturing someone with whom to speak her mother tongue Whilst she’s far from home And amn’t I spreading my wings By learning new words that aren’t hers? I can’t tell what she’s thinking at first But soon her shoulders start to shake the dirty words lift weights off her Until she’s holding her stomach with laughter My cousins and I wipe tears from our eyes As we reach for a glass of ice cold mugicha To wash down the meal And to wash out my mouth Of all that Yakuza slang — TAMIKO DOOLEY
Tamiko Dooley read Latin and French at New College, Oxford. She was the winner of the BBC Radio 3 carol competition 2021. She lives in South West London.