What terrific poetry!
WordPlay - November 2011
02 Nov 2011
Three poems by Jenny MacDonald
Child on a Swing
Swinging high
I love you mum he shouted
smiling
blue scarf flowing
I love you mum he shouted
free as a bird
blue scarf flowing
legs kicking high
free as a bird
soaring towards heaven
legs kicking high
dancing in air
soaring towards heaven
dreaming
dancing in air
with angel wings
dreaming
blissful
flying towards clouds
with angel wings
carefree
smiling
ecstatic
swinging high
El Fishawy’s Cafe (a cafe in Cairo)
antique mirrors gild aged walls
imbued with decades of discussion
arabesque lanterns light veiled alcoves
where young lovers
vow to love, honour and adore
mint tea and cardamom coffee
spice dusty, desert air
apple scented tobacco wafts from intricate shisha pipes
as philosophers look out on labyrinths of cobblestone alleys
that echo the ghosts of centuries
a woman aged but ageless –
mother of time
wears a garland of gardenias
her winkled, woven face
embroiders hidden worlds
nearby a mosque stands silent
silhouetted against a Cairo sky
Esna (a town in upper Egypt)
Smoke from age-old fires
snakes an ancient sky that once watched Khnum – creator
God,
breathe life into men and women
moulded from clay
Children with tattered clothes and matted hair
play on the banks of
a sequined shimmering ribbon
flowing through ancient land
A bus load of tourists
crass, cameras in hand
tramp through billowing reeds,
trespassing the sacred
A mosque’s slender tower rises
above mud brick huts
as a Moazzen’s hypnotic chant
echoes through time
Stay in touch with Docklands. Subscribe to FREE monthly e-Newspaper.
Comments
Page 1 of 1
