RAINY AFTERNOON AT DUSK

(A dark little poem)
 

This light only has the colour of darkness.

Looking out the tinted windows

Of the cafe in Bethesda Hospital

I see only the dark colours

The dark greens

Of the recently wet foliage

The dark yellows of unnameable flowers.

The darkness in the hearts of people

Driving by in the blue-black limousines

The dark navy aggression of the four wheel drives

What darkness have they had to perform to live like this?

Like a cliche the political process

Has reached a dark point in our history

That moment

After the dictator stops smiling

When you realise

It is no longer necessary

To wonder who the secret police are coming for in the night

They are coming for you.

A doctor comes up the steps of the hospital

Hurriedly buttoning his dark suit

What operation is he going to perform?

Outside high up in the El Greco sky

The dark shape of a single bird

I stand to leave

And take my dark presence from the room.

 

Lyndon Walker