#2137 - Donald Friend, Sri Lanka

 

2137

6.309

6.xi.25

Donald Friend, Sri Lanka

semi-ekphrastic

 

on the island of the young brown flesh

under ripe at times and yet

still ready to pluck

 

some would call this interest Socratic

classical, at least

 

an eye is for detail

and here’s the fort with all its ghosts

the village and all intrigue

 

passages just as dreamt
the figures could be human

belong here

 

unlike these few of us exempt from time

and from the other rules

still follow a path winds round the day

and up hill, down, out

 

a breeze about bronze buttock

if you get my thrust

 

that’s downtime for the genius

otherwise all brush

 

where every colour’s caught for bright

each as not before

 

and this was a kind of education

 

judge not lest ye

easy to say

 

bring me my glasses, g & t

give me punka wallah, wide veranda

and after, in the inner glow

a lovely cup of tea