Precious 10 Minutes - by
The GP stands at the door of his room,
/ shakes my hand, asks me how I am.
/ I always smile and say…
The GP stands at the door of his room,
/ shakes my hand, asks me how I am.
/ I always smile and say…
She walks on the charred ground, wings of smoke
/ from the bones of her home rising.
/
/ ‘Here was, there used to be,…
Allah Dad and Hira Singh,
/ You and I fought for the King!
/ Hajal Moka, Suba Khan,
/ You stood with us, man to man…
(The Dark Side)
/
/ My mind goes back to Fumin Wood, and how we stuck it out,
/ Eight days of hunger, thirst and…
Each life echoing, acting out these myths: / going into darkness, re-emerging, wounds / and griefs healed over.
/ …
My mind’s gone all middling in the centre.
Three weeks: one field / a deluge / of births and deaths.
Snowdrops are not innocent:
/ They fight for what they win.
/ Beauty’s what comes out:
/ Blind energy goes in.
/
/ …
Gruff trams and trains criss-cross and intersect
/ With glittering steel this leprous countryside;
/ Pyramid slagheaps threaten, seamed and specked
/ With smouldering pink: a…
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
We nearly missed her.
/ This little storm of life,
/ could have blown by
/ before we weathered her.
/ But here she is: sturdy,
/ definite, pointing her…
The noise in the recovery room
/ Was half footfall and half hum
/
/ Like a well-mannered gallery
/ Of pictures that I could not see.
/
/ And…