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The Samovar
The samovar sits on a table in my living room like a shrine. Almost two feet tall with a chimney on top, common for tea-making in 19th...
Nov 29, 20231 min read


A Trip to the Peak District
A rundown pub tucked in a sleeping village, A Sunday roast served on a cloudy day, A pint gargled down the throat. I was becoming English...
Nov 25, 20231 min read


The World's End
That Christmas, you took me to the village where you grew up in North Yorkshire. A village whose name you said could be found in the...
Nov 25, 20232 min read


A Train Whistle
Life was simpler then in innocence in trust when I walked through the night a seven year old on the road of flight my mother pushing the ...
Oct 29, 20234 min read


Albino Forest
Stadium of blue eyes surround me The charm and pride of a peacock dancing But something in their stare Is malicious Measure me up and...
Aug 1, 20231 min read


The Muezzin
for Seyyed Javad Zabihi A seyyed— the Prophet’s descendant— he wore a fez— as a pious Muslim chanted the azan and spiritual supplications...
Jul 25, 20231 min read


Forever Mystery
They look at me, a beautiful alien I am a forever mystery, an ethnic accessory Almond, golden eyes Slanted Small Chinky Coin slots Warm,...
Jul 25, 20231 min read


From Byker to Botany Bay, 1950
A long line of up-and-down terrace flats Adjunct outside lavvy and cobblestone back lane Runs cheek by jowl steep down to the foggy Tyne,...
Jul 18, 20232 min read


Thoughts of Migration
New world, new life, that’s what I wanted to see, unforeseen problems, old dreams, that’s what life wrote. The airport was like a gate,...
Jul 17, 20231 min read


Heaps of Home (for Berlin)
Combat boots trample gritty sidewalk weeds Lilacs bloom against monuments and walls Legs brush leaves brush glass brush stone We live...
Jul 14, 20231 min read


Migration Song
I sleep better here though I yearn for my former home. Here the fox stays mostly in his lair beneath the rocks and though the bigger...
Jul 14, 20231 min read


How Jozef Korzeniowski became Joseph Conrad
When he first arrived in England, Jozef K felt like a single whole pea in a blob of mushy peas. It is difficult to be surrounded by...
Jul 13, 20231 min read


Ode to Emigration
The suburbs can be bleak They render isolation The dreams of shores afar Inspire to emigration The fantasy of light In sunny cities tease...
Jul 10, 20231 min read


Generations
a father’s rule a brother’s will the needs of pigs that must be slopped until the farm divided bought her passage to the New World’s...
Jul 10, 20231 min read


Secrets of My Great Grandparents
No one knows how Jennie and Nathan managed to establish a life together after she had become the sorrowful teenage kallah in an arranged...
Jul 10, 20231 min read
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