Three Poems

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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