In the circle
of its trees

the lochan shines
midnight silk.

      symptoms she is aggregate concrete and grit held together in a human shape lying on her side knees drawn up flesh tensing to stone and tendons in flames the weight of her body pressed into the mattress leaves a shallow hollow once she’s gone a...

glimmer blades
the field’s lightly fogged
grass green

Outside the Berber tent
the poet and I contemplate
the boundless Sahara sky.

We totem our empires with the raptor,
weave into flags, fix on coins
but what of the victims?
How come no one ever glories the fish . . .

Think what it must have been like for her
fasting from sunrise to moonrise, to wake up
 
three hours before dawn, bathe, apply sindoor
on the parting of her hair line . . .

Zerihun drove him over the dead-cow hills and Bob’s long hair stood up with shock at what he saw.

Driving into low cloud everything fades
to a blur, all colour and definition leached

Two calls this morning – flood of tears…
She cannot eat a single thing they give her.