Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Dorothea Smartt

AUBERGINE ANGELS

AUBERGINE ANGELS

AUBERGINE ANGELS

Inside Old Street station,
I meet my Waterloo:
 
Aubergine Afros, primed,
shining and armed, wrestle
 
my gaze from briefcases,
from city zombies’ eyes;
 
the sweating on the back
of broad builders’ T-shirts;
 
a small boy’s arms running
with ice-cream: a bacon
 
sarnie in the happy
mouth of a homeless man.
 
Arrested by the sight!
– the light of grander dark
 
halos moving me up
and out. So I exit
 
to City Road behind
young Black boys. Black angels.
Close

AUBERGINE ANGELS

Inside Old Street station,
I meet my Waterloo:
 
Aubergine Afros, primed,
shining and armed, wrestle
 
my gaze from briefcases,
from city zombies’ eyes;
 
the sweating on the back
of broad builders’ T-shirts;
 
a small boy’s arms running
with ice-cream: a bacon
 
sarnie in the happy
mouth of a homeless man.
 
Arrested by the sight!
– the light of grander dark
 
halos moving me up
and out. So I exit
 
to City Road behind
young Black boys. Black angels.

AUBERGINE ANGELS

Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
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