Welcome...

Hi everyone, welcome to my site - a place of prose and poetry.

Thanks for stopping by...

Jo

Sunday, August 14, 2005

A coward's silence - poem

Assuming another interrogation
I keep a coward’s silence.
He can’t wish to form
an affectionate bond,
to walk in its mountains as a free man.

Isolated in individual cells
an unreliable witness waits.
This hankering,
her laughter at his clumsy gifts –
the daughter’s crying out
for help – the rhythms always central

enough to realise
that every object will outlive
me.

Traces uncovered,
a deal done.
I kept it for a week but he said no
no, it is not important now.

The last time I saw him,
some months before the end,
he told me we would lose.

He was not accusing.
He expected.

This knowledge he traded
for his life.

No comments: