Poem
Zaffar Kunial
The Word
The Word
The Word
I couldn’t tell you now what possessed meto shut summer out and stay in my room.
Or at least attempt to. In bed mostly.
It’s my dad, standing in the door frame
not entering – but pausing to shape advice
that keeps coming back. ‘Whatever is matter,
must enjoy the life.’ He pronounced this twice.
And me, I heard wrongness in putting a the
before life. In two minds. Ashamed. Aware.
That I knew better, though was stuck inside
while the sun was out. That I’m native here.
In a halfway house. Like that sticking word.
That definite article, half right, half
wrong, still present between enjoy and life.
© 2014, Zaffar Kunial
Zaffar Kunial
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1975)
Zaffar Kunial is a Hebden Bridge-based poet whose impact on the UK scene belies a small – so far – published output. His scope is wide, and his poems are dense with tone, imagery, technique, rhyme, and colour. Kunial arrived fully fledged into the public consciousness, when his poem ‘Hill Speak’ won third prize in the National Poetry Competition in 2011. It is a subtle and surprising poem, refl...
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Poems of Zaffar Kunial
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The Word
I couldn’t tell you now what possessed meto shut summer out and stay in my room.
Or at least attempt to. In bed mostly.
It’s my dad, standing in the door frame
not entering – but pausing to shape advice
that keeps coming back. ‘Whatever is matter,
must enjoy the life.’ He pronounced this twice.
And me, I heard wrongness in putting a the
before life. In two minds. Ashamed. Aware.
That I knew better, though was stuck inside
while the sun was out. That I’m native here.
In a halfway house. Like that sticking word.
That definite article, half right, half
wrong, still present between enjoy and life.
The Word
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