I am just a flower in the Valley
A Wild untamed bloom
A delicate blossom
Fighting to survive
Islamophobia
Have you ever looked to uproot, to plan a backup place to go
Before you’re uprooted and your citizenship is revoked?
Your British values not British enough to stop you being disowned,
To prevent you being spat at and stoned in the road,
Your attackers praised, and cheered…and let go.
Things I Learned From Running
How to run up a hill and love the effort
And when to run as darkness falls.
When to breathe
And banter with a would-be neophyte, dying after twenty yards,
Or laugh when gangs of lads sing insulting songs.
Where to cruise in the green.
Extract from My Art Journal
I observe the change in clouds
The only ones I saw
Never yearning for more
Until I saw
A rainbow
The Price of Gujarat
They said it started with a train,
But yet so much to ascertain.
Tyres burning and the smell of fuel,
What followed was only cruel.
A Locked-In Birthday
It feels like you are very far,
But you always remain in our heart.
”Enjoy your day and eat lots of cake as we say”.
It’s a shame we can’t awake you with a morning call
To ambush you into the wall.
Oh Not To Be In England
(with apologies to Robert Browning)
Part 1 – Past
Oh not to be in England
Now that Thatcher’s here
Selling off the council houses
In the hopes the poor might disappear.
Oh not to be in England as she carries on her reign
Levelling up the country
With poll tax
So we all can pay the same
An Invisible Enemy
We shall remember this,
Corona has us all,
like no other enemy,
chained with invisible chains
like slaves
But walking chin up,
With a pride. Pretending,
Uninvited Guest
I am the Elephant in the room
The uninvited guest
The one you can’t look in the eye
?
!
,
Crown Of Fear
I felt a stir in the still night
Looked up and saw no stars
The moon snuffed out
By huge dark wings
Hovering above an anguished earth
I looked a question
Heard a silent ‘not yet’
As the shadow passed
Leaving me in sorrowful moonlight.