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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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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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