Thanks Max for me caught the subjects voice -and a sort of wistfulness
P
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 15 December 2010 00:40
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: snap: Harry tells me
Harry tells me
in an accent
we had thought Italian
he was born in '39
in Malta - last of nine -
every two years Mother gave birth.
Father, from Scotland a 'navvy
in the British Navvy' -
after hernia surgery
some cotton left in his gut
poisoned him - he died.
'Big Navvy base in Malta
when the bombers came over
we ran to the shelter
my brothers and sisters carry me.
We were poor - Navvy fed us -
widow, you know, nine children
not much schooling
straight to work.
Malta no opportunities
sisters to the States
brothers in Malta
old now, some dead.
Australia! so good to me
I brought my bride
hard jobs cleaning
night hours - boss liked me
sacked others, kept me on.
Then the car factory, hard
work almost forty years -
they like me, like my son
he started straight from school
helped our boss write his letters
they sent him to Toyota Japan
my son still with Toyota
almost fifty - manager -
good country Australia.
Many Maltese went to Queensland
cutting cane, hard work, but
the opportunities!
Farming, property,
they are millionaires, some.
Malta? only back once.
I miss my brothers' funerals.
I will go soon.'
Max Richards
|