Anna Couani #67

all morning through the etching process

I think about my two friends

coming for afternoon tea

older than me

originally migrants

and the way we connect

back 50 years

when they were young adults

and I was a teenager

and one of them

in her crisp white uniform

working in the local pharmacy

looking so pure

so clean and pretty

I think as my hands are covered

in oily black ink

scraping it across the plate

the other one

living up the road

but unknown to us at the time

mentioned the idea to me

a fly in ointment

when talking about us dark haired people

wearing white clothes

and I always imagine her

up the other end of the street

which is very long

and I think of her darkness

and the way she says, of course!
with enviable confidence