high from a house roof in the kasbah i look at snow covered mountains at a fertile green oasis neatly separated with a clean chirurgical cut from yellowy brown desert at kapusta cabbage heads in neat rows among date palms
in Chellah on Roman columns nasze bociany Polish storks and nasze malwy our hollyhocks against façades of palaces with their intricate carved wood stucco and tilework i nasze przydrozne maki and our red poppies among graves of rulers long dead
in Zagora where a road sign proclaims 52 days to Timbuktu (by camel) a flock of girls runs from school freshly starched school uniforms bright smiling eyes hair in plaits laughing wanting to know where we’re from asking for bonbons
i think about my father
my hair in long plaits
walking together
through a pine forest
all things i was to be
silence all eyes on images from Abu Ghraib prison on the TV screen mint tea and coffee getting cold in my mind’s eye i see a sunny day in Brisbane among thousands of people
a young girl
in a wheelchair
walking for peace
in Chellah on Roman columns nasze bociany Polish storks and nasze malwy our hollyhocks against façades of palaces with their intricate carved wood stucco and tilework i nasze przydrozne maki and our red poppies among graves of rulers long dead
in Zagora where a road sign proclaims 52 days to Timbuktu (by camel) a flock of girls runs from school freshly starched school uniforms bright smiling eyes hair in plaits laughing wanting to know where we’re from asking for bonbons
i think about my father
my hair in long plaits
walking together
through a pine forest
all things i was to be
silence all eyes on images from Abu Ghraib prison on the TV screen mint tea and coffee getting cold in my mind’s eye i see a sunny day in Brisbane among thousands of people
a young girl
in a wheelchair
walking for peace
by Katherine Samuelowicz
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
first published in Yellow Moon 16, Summer 2004
No comments:
Post a Comment