Transnational by Josephine Clarke

airport sweet airport
how far can Ariadne stretch this optic fibre?

we no longer have use for hearth
it’s screen that draws us close

your dinner on Instagram hash tag family
Lear wandering the globe ranting on WhatsApp

your bisnonna had a handful of blue aerogrammes
in twelve silent winters

I have their fontanelle in my hand-held device
And what of the word home?

what if I take ill? who will come back /
come home / come through

and hold my hand     my real hand
where the creases run labyrinthine across my palm

—my palm where your newborn head once rested
and was safe.

From: Clarke, Josephine, “Transnational” in Southerly, Vol. 78, No. 3, December 2018, p. 100.
(https://search-informit-com-au.ezproxy-f.deakin.edu.au/fullText;dn=421688477360911;res=IELLCC)

Date: 2018

By: Josephine Clarke (19??- )