After the Fall or the Power of Reading |
by Reihana Robinson
You are a child and you are reading Barefoot Gen For Gen (after the fall) the Angels of Death flutter and storm spilling and flooding first one city then two
Angels of Death fluttering insomniacs twisting rising and falling
Angels of Death have no need to be bird-like Birds never miss the place to fly through
Here Angels of Death use up the verbs what is to burn what is to plunge what is to kettle what is to fry what is to torque to drill to sear to braise to bake to shrivel to melt to blast to shrink to shadow to suck to maim to bleed to horror and worst of all what is to live on from the small Enola tumble and fall
The Angels of Death are churning and smothering
You are a child and you are reading Barefoot Gen The blue sky over Oriental Bay shuffles and gallivants with its new offer of sunshine
You are a child breathing without flames You are a child inhaling without flames Your library housed without flames A splinter of time in Oriental Bay and time and distance swivel to find you are no longer a child reading Barefoot Gen You are wide-eyed and perplexed under the innocent sky Barefoot Gen |