Carpet …
Rebar twisted up from the broken blocks of
cement
against the pock marked road
jagged edge and broken brick
a neighbourhood tumbles
once full with emergent eyes
estuaries dry for a millennia
Silted into the moment
blood for water
Crimson hands pull life from broken slabs
Another explosion
Of the heart
Another pale phosphorus cloud
Sending streaks downwards
Multiplies outwards
Igniting bodies
Its edges of sand and debris aflame
Quietly drifts above the sheltering tents
While the sky smiles with sunshine
Another loved one pulled from a hole
large enough to move a baby through
Dirt lanes replace the roads
These webs of movement carry
The dead eyes of the living
Hills of devastation where homes were
Fragments of glass and metal
Where the shop window of the local grocer
Lie on the ground and are embedded
In bodies that move no more
Amidst these grey hills of refuse and debris
The ones who remain continue their broken walk
Moving south, forced south east, forced to
coastal beaches
Forced south east and landing in Rafah
that yawns over the unliving
Who haunt those they have left behind
It starts and continues
Like the rain that rivers
through into pools of clay water
Every day, day in and day out
Moving those who remain
to seek shelter
In
battered hospital compounds
And yet
A child’s fingers carry the kites to the top
of the concrete hill
Or the sand hill close to the sea
Threads reach upward into the sky
Triangular blues, crimsons, and pinks
Paint the sky a beautiful wave
And the children play in the summer sand
Knowing they have lost everything
And yet… even now they smile
the smile of hope
And if a child were to ask the sky why here?
The sky will tell you
Because you exist.
Phinder Dulai is the author of three poetry books: dream/arteries (Talon Books) and two previous books of poetry: Ragas from the Periphery (Arsenal Pulp Press, 1995) and Basmati Brown (Nightwood Editions, 2000). Phinder toured dream / arteries extensively in Canada and the USA. He read from dream / arteries at the Asian American Writers Workshop in New York City in 2015. In 2024 he was commissioned by the Surrey Art Gallery to write a series of ekphrastic poems for the Ghost In The Field exhibit by visual artist Jagdeep Raina. His work has appeared in Canadian Literature, Cue Books Anthology, Ankur, Matrix, Memewar Magazine, Rungh, The Capilano Review, Canadian Ethnic Studies, Toronto South Asian Review, subTerrain, and West Coast LINE. He regularly review books for Rungh Magazine and currently serves as the Poetry Editor for Canadian Literature Journal. He lives in Surrey, BC.
