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Envoi,
1st Prize, June 2008
The Coat
Chinese legend
tells of a woman taking a winter coat to her
husband, press-ganged to work on the Great Wall.
Three
months since cherry blossom drifted
like
snowflakes
onto
my red silk wedding-dress
and
whips and horses took him at dawn
three
months carrying his seed.
He
has no coat for winter
so,
its bundle on my back
I
confront village stares
women
spitting their contempt
children
throwing pebbles
as
at a stray dog.
Before
me, the Emperor’s stone dragon
winding
its tail through trees
up
craggy mountain faces.
I
climb steep, uneven steps
between
walls topped with huge teeth
up
to a watch-tower in swirling mist
the
dragon breathing
over
the edge of the world.
Below,
brick lines snake past outcrops
workers
swarm
hauling
boulders
heaving
buckets of clay
tamping
the mud
clouds
of breath above their heads.
Weather-beaten
faces gather
I
show my bundle
there
are murmurs of mudslides
men
falling from dragon claws
into
the ravine
they
shrug
my
child is heavy as granite.
I
undo the bundle
wrap
myself in his coat
sink
against walled roughness
through
fissures, wind whistles
notes
from his bamboo flute
snowflakes
drift onto the coat
like
cherry blossom.
Margaret Eddershaw
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