A Land of Pagodas
This is a land of pagodas. Everywhere
you turn, you’re faced with another.
They are where the gods live, just handy
for the bazaar, so that they can come down
from their high places to fetch bananas
and coconut milk. They do not have to pay.
For who would dare to ask a six-armed god
to delve with one of those many hands
into his garments and pull out a coin?
You could not give him change. That gold
six-sided token, discomfiting
your ordinary brass takings,
would have its currency nowhere in this world.
But when you die, make sure that coin is placed
with your burial meal of coconut milk
and bananas. Take it with your last strength
into your cold hand, grasp it tight.
It is your entry to the high pagodas.
*Joanna Boulter, shortlisted for Forward First Collection Prize 2007 with Twenty Four Preludes And Fugues On Dmitri Shostakovich (Arc Publications)has been extending her dual interest in words and music further by collaborating with composer Andrew Webb-Mitchell on a symphonic song-cycle.
