Poetry ~ Cyril Dabydeen 1. PRAYER --“Mother of all bombs” Nongarhar, Afghanistan She said-- the earth felt like a boat in a storm when it struck I thought my house had been bombed, a drone-strike that targeted a building Close to our village-- it was as if the heavens were falling, and women and children everywhere were so scared-- Oh my God! 2. THE MINISTER OF WORDS --after George Orwell The Minister of Words speaks up denies nothing owes everything to himself, he tells me nothing less expressed about past days and nights remembering more-- what’s long-lived as nothing’s ever forgotten, he declares to everyone indeed only to myself-- about creeds and beliefs dogma once again-- famous last words, you say an epitaph I will know, and don’t really know nothing circumscribed, falsely believed time far ahead with symbols and images new circumstances only, believe me, I must know long days and nights to come once again 3. HOW WE HAVE GROWN OLD Fiction it seemed, nothing less-- as I picked up Mahatma Gandhi’s Autobiography: or the Story of My Experiments with Truth at the Salvation Army second-hand store here in Ottawa, the paperback volume thrown aside on a table with everyone passing it by-- a discarded book: soft cover, silky on the surface, printed in India; and I immediately took it to the check-out counter where the woman with an indifferent expression looked at me, indeed not the famous book. So I asked, How much? Forty cents, she replied. And quickly I paid for it—no receipt—without her looking at my face or eyes again, all done with perfect ease-- as I said my goodbye. ![]() Cyril Dabydeen’s recent books include God’s Spider/poetry (Peepal Tree Press, UK), My Multi-Ethnic Friends and Other Stories (Guernica Editions, Toronto), and the anthology Beyond Sangre Grande: Caribbean Writing Today (Tsar/Mawenzi House, Toronto). Previous books include: Jogging in Havana (1992), Black Jesus and Other Stories (1996), Berbice Crossing (1997), My Brahmin Days (2000), North of the Equator (2001), Play a Song Somebody: New and Selected Short Stories (2003), Imaginary Origins: New and Selected Poems (2005),and the novel, Drums of My Flesh, 2007 ( nominated for the IMPAC/Dublin Prize, and winner of the International Guyana Prize for best novel). Cyril’s work has appeared in over 60 literary mags and anthologies, including the Oxford, Penguin and Heienemann Books of Caribbean Verse and Fiction. He has done over 300 readings internationally. He twice adjudicated for the Governor General’s Award (Poetry) and the USA Neustadt Prize for Literature (UOklahoma), et al. He is a former Poet Laureate of Ottawa (1984-87). He has taught Creative Writing at the University of Ottawa. He was born in Guyana, S. America. His latest work is ‘My Undiscovered Country’ (short stories).
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