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from Karitane Postcards
3
In the Book of Hours I found on the shelf
pressed flowers selfheal groundsell
speedwell placed there some twenty years ago
by Betty Bell to Betty it said in the fly leaf
with love from Bella San Francisco May 1953.
Such quietness there’s space to panic.
I like to hear my breath
its noise the noise and heart’s clamour
of direction and purpose.
Truby organized the local residents to sand bag
the river so it didn’t flow again in old channels.
On wet nights he roused them
under God’s full glare sandbagging the insolent
shadows.
[Karitane Postcards, Hazard Press, 1991]
© Rob Allan 2004 |
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