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14th Anniversary Edition, Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Six Nov-Dec 2023.
Dreaming of Barbados, poems by Piers Davies.
Dreaming of Barbados Blue
It is always
the sky and the sea
that I remember
not the sand,
the limbo party
on the beach
and the seductive rum,
not the chattel houses –
relics of sugar and slavery.
Memory reveals later
what soothes and calms
in that anxious time
between night and dawn.
Is there anyone there
No longer
the childhood
imaginary friend
nor the cynical
observer of my
Quixotic youth.
Now just outside
the corner of my eye
he/she/it lurks
for what purpose
malevolent? definitely not benign.
Disappearances
1
I remember them dying
my father my grandfather
my great aunt and uncle
I knelt stunned at these funerals
In the same sombre chapel
grey worsted school uniform
white shirt dark red tie and cap
black leather shoes highly polished.
2
our pets disappeared
as if the Stasi had called
the alsatian Nicky
handsome as the last Tsar
the white mice
surplus to requirements
when the schoolboy market fell
our old stable cat
one moment sleepy in the sun
the next scrabbling on a slant
across the grape-vined patio
with a minor stroke.
3
My mother made the arrangements
by the time I knew it was too late
and I became complicit in these deletions
learning the facts of like and death.
© Piers Davies
Piers Davies was born in Sydney, Australia but has lived most of his life in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, he is a Law of the Sea specialist having graduated with an LL.B from Auckland University and a Diploma ECL from City of London College. He has been a long-time writer and reciter of poetry. His poems have appeared in journals and anthologies in New Zealand, Australia, U.K., France, Switzerland, Poland, U.S. A, South Africa and India. Four books of his poetry have been published. He is co-facilitator of Titirangi Poets and co-editor of Titirangi Poets Ezines and anthologies. He was a scriptwriter of feature films (‘Homesdale’ and ‘The Cars that Ate Paris’ Australia and ‘Skin Deep’ New Zealand), short films and documentaries. He was sometime Poet Laureate of Haringey, London.