On The Write Path

Immigrant song [JI#3]

For: "Journalistic Intentions" 

Immigrant Song

IMMIGRANT SONG

Your Swedish
smile — cigarette tucked
behind one ear

[tataki 805]

Voices harmonize and lilt in the markets of Malmö where foreign foods are sold. A welcome change of fare to some, a threat to others. Some prefer more narrow well-worn paths to their barred and barricaded barracks. Even later-day-vikings who visited the world grow old and weary, choosing to hide in hovels away from the change each hour brings.

Old streets —
young voices call out
selling falafel.

Some people smoke. It's true! Even where it's frowned upon someone has to clean up the tossed butts littering the gutters. The old-timers mutter. But it was even dirtier back then. The dark clouds of industry and the closed minds of the factories that built a city under the nose of the Danes. Are they eager to go back to what they lost?

Your Swedish
smile — cigarette tucked
behind one ear

Dark faces brighten the streets of old abandoned Oslo nestled by the railroad tracks and Akerselva where they sell fruits and offer the wisdom of Ethiopia and Eritrea on a plate. Even the Norse relish a change from pizza (the new national dish) or fish soaked in lye (lytefisk). They live in the hills to the east or west or in the Barcode District soaring overhead. They dine at street level.

The smell of stew
brightens streets — injera
sops it up.

Asean Town in Taichung beckons locals to taste Viet Nam and Indonesia or burn their tongues on Thai cuisine. Taiwan is a smörgåsbord of the Far East, South East Asia, even Europe. There is little the Taiwanese won't eat. The immigrants from Mainland China brought their cuisine and culture to Formosa after the Japanese left in 1945. Now folks flee from Hong Hong. Centuries of providing refuge has made Taiwan a forgiving place.

Handmade mochi
in Hualien — in Chiayi
turkey rice

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