Mira existed in the same flat
since my birth
one bedroom and kitchenette
postage-stamp balcony
carpark below
exhaust fumes rising
five years in Swiss neutrality
forty-two when she docked
in Sydney Harbour
blood still dripping
from torn roots
stoic as a sphinx
with a baby daughter
a maudlin husband
a parched future
she surveyed her razed past
decades later
an oasis of grandchildren
where she found meaning
and those sisters up the road
who also understood
a narrow escape
who could share a laugh
over coffee and strudel
and endless Canasta
never too happy or too sad
Mira was resigned
a bowl of sweets
constantly replenished
on the only coffee table
in the only flat she lived in
since my birth

**

Mark Mahemoff’s poetry has been published in one Chapbook, a CD selection, and six full-length volumes. The latest, which was launched at The Newcastle Writer’s Festival, is Beautiful Flames (Flying Islands 2024). Mark works full-time as a psychotherapist.

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