Gulf 1991
Silence, empty as no man's dream
I'm a pink body hanging
suspended in my baby colour
am I born? Oh mother, let me be borne
on my cord, in this sapphire vacancy
blue. I'm tilting, turning, falling
in touchless, fruitless, birdless
say nothing, know nothing, be nothing-
ness of blue, mother of all blue
*
Arab carpet dyed in shades of earth
floats up, flattens to a threadbare, faded brown
embossed with dunes, tracks, stones
blueness retreats, holes up in the sky
*
The distant hills are green
it is a perfect day on the plain
someone is playing a pipe
there are tents, no, tabernacles
bells, long-legged shaggy goats
biblical, strolling with their keepers
A cloud of dust is moving towards me, gunfire
verily, even here. Trucks mirage from nowhere
the ground shakes, rough, ordering tongues…
one fighter down, alone, this is
the mother of all reality
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