Three poems from the Association of Scottish Artists for Peace.
AC CLARKE
Beyond Mombasa
Black men in leopardskins crawl through jungle
clutching rifles. The single image
that stays with me – a film which cast the Mau-Mau
as enemies in their own country.
White Fathers moving among black lepers
in a dusty colony. The single image
that stays with me – a missionary film.
I bought a black baby to name for half a crown.
A living woman posed on a plinth
as her fellow African was years ago.
I cannot meet her eyes. The single image
that stays with me from that troubling exhibition.
What use is luxury white guilt? None.
Unless it could stretch back and back and back
and link by link the cruel, intricate chains
could be undone.
CHRYS SALT
Heron
Her mighty birdkite beak agape
was screaming ‘help’ ‘help’ ‘help’
panicked by some danger on the lake.
Over and over, ‘Help!’ ‘Help! ‘Help!’
Wings punishing the air
in anguished downdraft, yelps
of terror, willing us airborne,
to dare the distance, cradle
her frightened beauty in our arms.
Helpless we watch her as she flees.
beyond our ken, beyond our care.
A newsflash on a silver screen,
of light then we continue on our walk,
pick blackberries, talk politics.
Gaza, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq
SIMON BERRY
Cultivation
Zemledeliye it means
cultivation or just growing things
Zemledeliye it’s probably
a word worth noting.
This farmer who has lost both
legs below the knee
driving a tractor
on his field of winter wheat
will certainly know of it.
Likewise the schoolgirl taking
a shortcut on the way home
from her just re-opened
Donbas village school
will be familiar with it too.
Sensing her approach
and hidden in the long grass
the mine rose spring-assisted
to head height
surprising as a lark
before shredding her.
How did they get there
these bounding fragments
carving the summer air
of territories just taken back?
It’s Zemledeliye my friend
a multiple launcher
transported on a lorry
parked many miles away
in inoffensive grey.
No human hand involved
each mine with its parachute
taken by the wind.
Now they patiently await
in lengthening grass
the approach of a target
to cultivate.
AC Clarke, Chrys Salt, Simon Berry are members of the Association of Scottish Artists for Peace.
