Kerri Shying R # 601 - the unwitnessed sorrow of the god of fire's brother

the unwitnessed sorrow of the god of fire's brother
( at Write Up - Newcastle City Library)

it was only me and my black heart
on the first day the sun all gold the sky
still blue it irked me how
every piece of land
seemed to steal some small piece of colour
from them and it gave joy

I sat on the pale yellow beach sand
weeping my grey ash tears there I could listen
to the people say watch out
there's a piece of hot charcoal there
and how terrible are these fires

I was alone
far from my thousands
of brothers who had flown the other way
along the sapphire of the coast

I imagined
them heaped together warm soft powdery
as our mother's mouth red now faded
there was nothing that respected our colours
here no black men

none of the huge crows
that circled up along the scarp in the treetops
of my birth and men said
by my ear

it will be another thousand years
before these fires
come again