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ARTS AND CULTURE

My Baghdad dreams

  • 02 February 2016

My dreams take speed

Be simple justSay what you see to whom you choose to say

So is my desk then altar or alterity?

I bite on lifeThe bitterness will daunt but not defeat me

And I hear youI can never give you voice

My dreams take speedMy Baghdad dreams take speedMy rest my head against the pillow of the westMy dare not closeMy eyes my sail onBaleful

Exclamation bombs my BaghdadI slow witted all my dreaming lovely disinheritedMy magic near the edgeI love the edgeI love its line by line disdain 

You don'tHave long to liveSweet parliamentAnd worseDeclaratory vat behind the archiveYou have never had a heaven to go on to 

Heaven knows.

 

The smoke the boxing ring

The gypsy ash ofSeven homely hills

Your table cloth still knowsThe knowing burnsThe smiling scars

For here is one who livesAnd takesAnd kills

Go quicklyCorner him and shredHis punch-drunk dreamsBetween the stars.

 

Birth poem

LuchaYou are poetryIn social and surprise 

My comrade strenuousAnd straining

AndOur daughterSimply openingAnd searching withHer eyes.

 

Dr John Falzon is Chief Executive of the St Vincent de Paul Society National Council.