If I Forget
I was supposed to be doing housework today, but this poem happened instead. I know FA about poetry, so if someone can read this and tell me if it makes sense, has resonant images, gets a message across, I'd be grateful...
Thanks.
“What does your mother cook?”
I asked the twins.
“Food from her country, or
food from here?”
“From here!”
“From there!”
They answered together.
And we laughed, knowing that in spring,
Salads are mild and pale green until warmth brings the bite
Of pepper, the sharp crash of rocket.
That summer lunch is red and purple, smoky
With aubergine and garlic.
In our minds we tasted bread loops,
crusty with sesame.
”When she was little she bought watermelons
near the Damascus Gate.
She grows them here, but says they never taste the same.”
What’s a border? What’s a sea?
Exile was a state of heart until the
lemon-salty tang of za’atar took me
by surprise --
back to that city of honey-coloured sandstone,
faded blue shutters and
the shuffling tap of ragged boys’ donkeys.
I found myself listening to the sigh of wind through the pine needles overhead
and feeling youth’s tears
on my cheeks.
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6 Comments
Delightful. Re your questions: it does, it has and it does.
PS (if you're interested) What I DO understand about is that when you submit a post and it produces all that extraneous data at the start, you can click on 'Edit' and delete the unwanted text at the start, then scroll to the bottom and click on that 'Edit' to re-submit your work in pristine condition. :-)
I particularly like these lines:
And we laughed, knowing that in spring,
Salads are mild and pale green until warmth brings the bite
Of pepper, the sharp crash of rocket.
That summer lunch is red and purple, smoky
With aubergine and garlic.
because they appeal to me both as a gardener and an eater! I also like the way you describe connections with a home country for both yourself and the twins' mother.
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