Smoke that Thunders

Just received the pictured 2015 short collection by Eveline Pye - poems about Africa; and Glasgow ;-)

... particularly liked this one:


Tenements

Living close as in an African village
but stacked in three dimensions, above, below,
one each side, thick walls, rigid internal partitions,
peeping out through double-glazed holes in sandstone.

And the silence. I asked a man from Ghana
what he found most alien in Glasgow.
He didn't say technology, wind, snow or rain.
He said, It's the quiet, and he's right.

Here, no elders dispense wisdom under trees,
no children laugh and shout as they run
between gardens without hedges
giving smiles to everyone.

Maybe two generations back: weans playing
in the street, grannies having a good gossip
outside the corner shop, maybe then, Glasgow
was more like an African village.

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Eveline Pye

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