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in collection The Silver
Rembrandt, 2008,
Shoestring Press, ISBN 978-1-9048867-3-0
When the Buddhas of the Bamiyan Fell
for
one heart-shocking moment
before
the censor kicked in
it
was satisfying as the slow collapse
of
a factory chimney – or earth falling off
her
axis, as you know she will.
Our
lips flickered,
a
little replica of that great bald fragment
of
smile that lies in the valley dust.
Why
did they fire their rifles,
shout
with glee at wounded trickles
of
rock while a watching child
clapped
his hands? I remember my mother
once
lay, a sleeping giant in the moonlight,
her
inscrutable limbs sculpted in silver.
Had
I known DEAD
I
would have sent it’s hot golden bullet
straight
from my cot to her heart. Not gods
anymore,
the Buddahs of Bamiyan,
made
part of our own flesh by the long fuse of hate.
Now
in our sorrow, none the less true
for
being late,
we
must carefully bend to our task, piece
together
all the shattered Mummies and Daddies,
the
Humpty Dumpties, foolish or wise,
finding
a kind autumnal patience,
which
after that first small greedy lick of pleasure,
will
come to us if we wait.
Kate Foley
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last
update:
e-mail
Kate
Kate
at Desperado Literature
ppf
shop on-line...
anthology -
"A Twist of Malice"
shop elsewhere...
collections -
"The
Silver Rembrandt",
Shoestring Press;
"Laughter
from the Hive",
Shoestring Press;
"Soft
Engineering",
Onlywomen Press;
"A Year Without Apricots",
Blackwater
Press;
chapbook
-
"Night and Other Animals",
Green Lantern
Press
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