Anna Couani #98 ideas for novels 10

that Levantine personality

said my friend

referring to my father

after those stories I told him

but also his own parent

and I was thinking

also, himself

but it was pejorative

and racist actually

to ascribe a personality type

to a whole region

what we did have in common

was that history

of non-Anglo migrants

who came before the 50’s wave

haunted people

refugees with untold stories

speaking their languages

in secret

masquerading as English even

in some cases

other Australians trace their roots back

to the country areas and rural pioneers

and their contact with Aboriginals

find their histories soaked

with Aboriginal blood

it’s a relief to find that missing

in our own history

where parents in urban slums

goaded their kids

the flowers of their families

into academic paths

but then what

treading lightly on the ground

leaving no trace

and having no roots

unable to return

having nowhere to go

unlike those later migrants

fostering their own languages

changing the cities

splitting their lives
between two countries