i.

D’s brother in frilly shirt, light blue suit
played the polka so well
they let him go to Poland
D’s sister, the good comrade lawyer
tour guide takes trips to Moscow
Mama is still in Bratislava
with her cigarettes and queues

‘they’ said D was one of the usurpers
told him we’ll take your card
he swam the Danube, Strauss was missing
on the day the bullets also missed

now when the grass dries to its brownness
and the sun hits like a force-field
D sees the dappled greens of the mountains
breathes the mellowness of the spa towns
and once in a while he’s back in Prague
with his interrupted coffee, uneaten salami
hearing that rumble on the ninth century stones

I didn’t understand why D went on and on
about KGB—me on my very high
windmill, Marx in Ten Easy Steps
and Mao’s Little Book to read in bed

ii.

F has an Omar Sharif face
that Hollywood would definitely like
can drink five Fosters in an hour
likes strip shows for lunch

trains blonde blokes in computers
pretty good for an engineer
with no paper to prove his degree
from a building that once stood in Kabul

F did a Von Trapp, bribing someone
to guide him over mountains to Pakistan
getting stuck in Nepal—the false passport,
a passage to Canada falling through
lined up for his bowl of rice
from the United Nations for three years

doesn’t know if his father is alive
can’t have his sisters over for a barbecue—
The States, France, Russia
too far for a Sunday drive
his brother, said to have been
the best eye doctor in Afghanistan,
sends greetings from Helsinki

F laughs a lot, even with a wife
who’s got guns in her head
and the loneliness of the way we live
in the best place on the planet

An earlier version of this poem appeared in Australian Multicultural Book Review, 2000. Ed. by Clarissa Stein

**

Lyn Chatham completed an MA in Writing and Literature at Deakin University in 2023. In 2022 her essay on keeping a writing notebook was published in Meanjin and her book reviews have been published in the ecojournal, Plumwood Mountain. In 2018 her poetry chapbook, Artisan, was published by Melbourne Poets Union, and in 2005 her memoir of a Winchelsea resident, Martino’s Story, was shortlisted in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.