Iakovos Garivaldis
“What’s the name of my mama?
She’s da Street…
But don’t ask me ‘bout my father
Lady dear,
Look ‘a here…”
As he turns to scratch the surface of the road…
Looking down upon his luck,
Kicking hard at every rock.
Then at dusk
Sniffing thinner in a corner,
In the dark.
Dreaming dreams about purity not love.
Who can clothe him
not reject him,
Who can now understand him?
Smoking grass,
And sniffing glue
Just to see if dreams come true,
Just to smell what eyes don’t see;
And some day, a lethal dose
Just as sudden as he came
Falling motionless
And in vain
In a placid, timorous gaze…
There, my lady
Now he’s rich,
Part of rain and the mist
All within our own sight…
Little child of the road,
In this world all you have sought
Is embedded in the dust upon your hair
And refreshed with the rain
Running silently while spinning
round your neck.
© Iakovos Garivaldis
About Garivaldis Iakovos
Iakovos (founder of Diasporic Literature Spot) was born in Thessaloniki Greece, and arrived in Australia as a migrant in 1970. He has studied Computer Science and is an Approved U2 Developer / Administrator with IBM.
He has been writing poetry (in both Greek and English) since he was a child and here in Australia was President of Hellenic Writer's Association of Australia between 1993 and 2004.
He founded the first bi-lingual literature website in Australia in 1997, organised the first book exhibition of the works of writers from Greek origin in Australia. Together with Costas Athanasiou organised the first photographic exhibition of writers' portraits of Greek origin in Australia and was the first to research literature on the internet by Greeks of Diaspora, a paper which was presented at the Flinders University Conference of Greek Research in 2005 and published in the University's bi-annual research journal.
Γεννήθηκε στη Θεσσαλονίκη, έφτασε στην Αυστραλία το 1970 και υπηρέτησε σε πολλούς παροικιακούς οργανισμούς. Γράφει λογοτεχνία στην Ελληνική και Αγγλική από παιδική ηλικία.
A sad poem, Iakovos. I particularly like the opening stanza and a great photo to illustrate ‘Street Kid.’ Well done! Gabrielle.
Thank you Gabrielle,
This is truly a sad poem, however real. Life is not what it looks like through the TV screens. It is much more devastating than that and man can be brutal where he can be understanding. There’s a reason for everything, we just don’t look hard enough at times.
Iakovos