Saturday 6 November 2010

55. Al-Wali – Friendship


Suggests friend, near, saint --- 'My friends
are my estate' Emily Dickinson 


Friendship
In a desert
I turned into a beast
parading round
and, with heart and hands
honest, I ate
up sweet friendship
to find an answer
more acceptable
(not so bitter)
than a single heart’s one truth.
 
I do

Andrew asks of strangers
whether they are married;

if they answer ‘Yes’, he asks
who they’re married to
and if they answer ‘No’
he asks them sweetly ‘Why?’
as if they’re somehow missing out
a trick of life or two

but if a near one poses
‘Andrew, man, who loves you?’
hoping he’ll come back with
‘Mum’ or ‘Dad’ or ‘You!’

he looks away and simply answers
‘Me! It’s me. I do!’

1 comment: