all these years on
& i've given up on reflections
such as the origins of human madness
the limits of what we are beyond our controle
& suddenly as often happens nowadays
i flashback to a dangerous rushing stream
tumbling & cold i remember
the water is green white deep
a slither of a stripped tree trunk straddles
the sheer sided banks
a few strides & a skip
to cross which all in the bleak grey stone village
must old or young strong weak or sick
to enter onto its sparse barren ground
i am alone i see no one
even the tree spar looks slippery shiny
bent with an undersway to the tug of the flow
a fatal slip & i'm gone i could go on
but i cross
a few strides & a skip
i come to the first stone dwelling place
the ground is hard & arid i pass the front dyke space
to enter without a door
the burnt earthen floor room in its dim half light
i don't remember how
there's what looks like a built up large sink
made of stone & shingle & in it half submerged
in clear cold water small white turnips
it's his only fare we stare at each other
he is tall thin gaunt with long white hair & beard
clad in a brown home spun gown & cord sandals
he goes to the sink & offers me a soaked turnip
is this me in another life time could i live
this life day in day out
tonight i will sleep out for i cannot stay
we have not spoken a word
i eat the turnip his only nourishment
& leave as suddenly as i came to a memory
which now hinges on a dream as though
a desert wind should move a dune where
you wake to find what you left behind is beyond you still
Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Poetry Life & Times at Artvilla.com. His numerous appearances include Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Honest Ulsterman, Cratera No 3 and Aquillrelle’s Best. His publications are collected poems All the Babble of the Souk, Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals & Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems. A translation from Spanish of poems by Guadalupe Grande Key of Mist and Carmen Crespo Tesserae, the award winning (X111 Premio César Simón De Poesía), in November 2017 these works were presented in a live performance at The International Writer’s Conference hosted by the University of Leeds. UK. A forthcoming publication of collected poems Off the Menu is expected in 2020
You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)