Poem
Mir Mahfuz Ali
My Daughter Waits by the Door
My Daughter Waits by the Door
My Daughter Waits by the Door
We live on a council estate, my daughter and I.Nine years old, but she looks much younger.
She has not yet learnt to read the minds
and the motives of our neighbours. It’s a month
now since they stopped playing with her,
Heather, Helen, Edmond and Simon.
When I bring her home from school she
doesn’t take off her jacket, but waits.
When a breeze whistles past the house
she opens the blue door with a smile
to see whether anybody waits outside
asking her to play on the reckless street
smothered in hostile dust; but no-one is there.
A long emptiness howls like a mad dog
chained in unknown hatred at the gate.
Her heart hardens like the weary
paving stones. Nobody comes
to soften my daughter’s fallen spirit.
© 2007, Mir Mahfuz Ali
Mir Mahfuz Ali
(Bangladesh, 1958)
Mir Mahfuz Ali was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1958. He studied at Essex University and the City Literary Institute in London. He dances, acts and has worked as a male model and a tandoori chef. As a performer, he is renowned for his extraordinary voice – a rich, throaty whisper brought about by a Bangladeshi policeman trying to silence the singing of anthems during a public anti-war demonstra...
Poems
Poems of Mir Mahfuz Ali
Close
My Daughter Waits by the Door
We live on a council estate, my daughter and I.Nine years old, but she looks much younger.
She has not yet learnt to read the minds
and the motives of our neighbours. It’s a month
now since they stopped playing with her,
Heather, Helen, Edmond and Simon.
When I bring her home from school she
doesn’t take off her jacket, but waits.
When a breeze whistles past the house
she opens the blue door with a smile
to see whether anybody waits outside
asking her to play on the reckless street
smothered in hostile dust; but no-one is there.
A long emptiness howls like a mad dog
chained in unknown hatred at the gate.
Her heart hardens like the weary
paving stones. Nobody comes
to soften my daughter’s fallen spirit.
My Daughter Waits by the Door
Sponsors
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère