Exiles

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EXILES

Exiled from home. The far sea rolls

between them and the country of their birth;

the childhood-turning impulse of their souls

pulls half across the earth. Exiled from home.

No mother to take care that they work too hard,

grieve not too sore;

no older brother nor small sister fair

no father any more.

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Exiled from home; from all familiar things;

the low browed roof, the grass surrounded door;

accustomed labours that gave daylight wings;

loved steps on the worn floor.

Exiled from home. Young girls sent forth alone

when most their hearts need close companioning;

no love and hardly friendship may they own,

no voice of welcoming.

Blended with homesick tears the exile stands;

to toil for alien household gods she comes;

a servant and a stranger in our lands,

homeless within our homes.

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– Charlotte Perkins Gilman. (1914)

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Above left: Anne Frandi-Coory’s maternal Italian grandmother, Maria Cajetan Grego Frandi

Above right: Anne Frandi-Coory’s paternal Lebanese grandmother, Eva Arida Fahkrey (Coory) 15yrs old & married, in Bcharre, Lebanon, on her way to New Zealand. 

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See later post: Italian Villa With Virgin

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See Immigration & The Promise