Posted in Poetry, Travel, Travel Writing, tagged 7/7/2005, England, London, London bombings, Poetry, terrorism, Travel, Travel writing on 25/05/2011| 6 Comments »
BANG!!!!!
Eyes up.
Three metres dead ahead.
The top of the double-decker fills
with opaque white smoke
and the roof peels back
Like a sardine can.
Somehow knowing.
Breath sucked from my chest
Running,
dodging falling tin and ….?
Then.
Nothing.
Silence.
Confusion.
Terror.
Death……
and then quietly, unapologetically… birdsong
Life.
jpm
Posted in Poetry, Travel, Travel Writing, tagged East Timor, Poetry, Timor Leste, Travel, Travel writing, UN Peacekeepers on 18/05/2011| 2 Comments »
In downtown Dili
As the Peacekeepers’ trucks rumbled importantly by
(their helicopters clacking overhead)
And the children made their way to their teacherless schools
And the dust seeped into every crack and pore,
Someone
Had thoughtfully covered
The bottomless pothole in the centre of the road
With a delicate parasol.
jpm
Posted in Poetry, Travel, Travel Writing, tagged camels, Mongolia, Poetry, Travel, Travel writing on 10/05/2011| 2 Comments »
The first time
I went to Mongolia,
the camel spat at me (from it’s lordly height)
and sneered.
The second time
I went to Mongolia,
the camel burped disdainfully in my face
(loud and long).
The third time,
I didn’t even go to Mongolia.
I’d had it with rude camels.
jpm
Posted in Poetry, Travel, Travel Writing, tagged Nghe An Province, Poetry, Travel, Travel writing, Viet Nam, Vietnam War on 04/05/2011| 5 Comments »
When he was 15,
Anh told me
his job was to dive into the sea,
bringing up the bodies of the fishermen
who had been caught out during the carpet bombing raids
on central Vietnam.
Bringing them home.
When I was 15,
I dived in the pool,
Bringing up coins.
jpm
50 words for 50 countries 