For some unknown reason to us
Mother couldn’t, or, wouldn’t drive,
failing driver’s licence examinations

though a car would have made her
Queen of the Road, she was
happy for Father to drive us around
while they were arguing, from maps,
about where, on Earth, they might be
going, and we sat meekly in the back,
vouching to get our licences as soon
as we’d leave home, and the three of us
sang many songs, in all of the parts,
as much as we could, without our
parents ever joining in, I can’t even
remotely recall my father ever singing

though he whistled softly when raking
the leaves and grass, or, in the garden
at night, gazing at the Australian stars

**

Jeltje Fanoy has been involved with poetry and poetry small presses in Melbourne since the nineteen seventies. She’s been exploring Diaspora themes throughout her writing since the publication of her first collection Living in Aboriginal Australia in 1988. Her published work includes five collections of poetry.

This poem also appears in the print version of P76 Issue 9
available for $20 (plus postage and handling)
from Rochford Cottage Bookshop

P76 issue 9: Poetries of place/ displacement/ diaspora/ odyssey: On-line Edition. Table of Contents