A poem from Two Hundred Million Musketeers by Ender Başkan
The following is a poem from p.52-3 of Two Hundred Million Musketeers (November 2025), Ender Başkan’s debut collection. In the book, the poet explores the complexities of new parenthood and family life, and anxieties about the future his children will grow up in.
Airport
my grandparents or uncles and aunties and cousins are returning home from returning home / the rest of the family early morning pilgrims to the airport / waiting for the silver doors to slide open / arrivals board spasming / DELAYED / LANDED / we all live close to the airport / international arrivals hall now / its 615am in the 1990s 2000s / perhaps all these memories have become one / poem / my mums parents have returned home / they say australia is home now / they say this might be their last time back / they like their home here their backyard here / my dede has arrived with new teeth / i am bamboozled / he is a handsome man / he has a new suit too and a tan / my anneanne has a new beret and gold / shes beautiful / my cousins and i have been waiting / playing with trolleys / we will get to school late this morning / we might get hash browns from maccas / an indenture is a legal contract that reflects an agreement between two parties / usually labour servitude / they say you only belong to a country when you bury a loved one in it / we kiss our grandparents quickly / one on each cheek / we try unzipping their luggage for gifts / who got what / i get a rip-off galatasaray top tho my team is fenerbahçe and also a silver chain / we dont make the pilgrimage anymore / but i offer pick-ups and drop-offs all the time / its good to see a friendly face on the other end / back then the aura of travellers / some gold dust that rubbed off onto you / probably more for me / id never been to turkey but i was turkish / our backyard was under a flightpath / look up and imagine / my cousin forgot how to speak english after six months there / my cousins with grandparents there / i had great-grandparents there i never met / my parents didnt take me back / my parents couldnt look back / my mum said too painful / my dad said you gotta move on / when home alone mum listened to turkish music / australia told us no dont go back / work / a debt / australia a spell / australia using up the best of us / my mum with a pocket koran in her bag / we were always close to the airport / zeki dede worked at istanbul airport / ali dede worked at ankara airport / thats how they got here / zeki dede worked at essendon airport / my dad worked at tullamarine airport / i did my work experience at the airport / mum took me to roger david and we bought two shirts a tie and pants / wed buy kfc and drive out to the airport to watch the planes land with dad / or take off / an airport a black hole that sucks in all around it / they say direct flights will soon start from melbourne to istanbul / just go to sleep and youre there / youre home / in istanbul they lived near the airport / my dedes dad was buried on its edge / one day they said – were expanding the airport so come dig up your kin / so my dede went and dug up his dad / exhumed his remains / and put him in a new cemetery / almost sixty years later / my dede dies / is buried at fawkner cemetery under a flight path / he dies while i am living in istanbul / i go to the cemetery and find his mum and dad and sit with them / merhaba i say aloud ben senin büyük torununum / ǒglun zeki benim dedemdir / çok uzaklarda / topraklara verildi / başımız sağ olsun / allah rahmet eylesin
