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Writer's pictureAnthony V. Capildeo

Feeling Seen

I Stand Here Ironing – Tillie Olsen

‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’ – John Keats, ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’

 

 

They will welcome refugees

And ask, Who is my neighbour?

Beauty is truth, truth beauty

I stand here admiring

 

The greatest affront to them

a handsome Arab father

laughing   cooking food to share

abundantly   a citizen

of cities that are legend

and living stone   his children

planting roses   promises

 

Beauty is truth, truth beauty

I stand here admiring

They will welcome refugees

And ask, Who is my neighbour?

 

Your place is to have no place

Your face is an enclosure

opened by greater powers

You hold out an empty plate

Petitioner   the natural

condition for you   loser

They want to feel compassion

 

They will welcome refugees

And ask, Who is my neighbour?

Beauty is truth, truth beauty

I stand here admiring

 

The children look like children

in family photographs

of my family   could be

children of my family

this should not make a difference

but it does   oh   subtle   fall

all dead   are equally real




Author bio: Anthony V. Capildeo OPL is a Trinidadian Scottish writer of poetry and non-fiction. Recent work includes Polkadot Wounds (Carcanet, 2024), and an essay series on touch and mourning. They are Writer in Residence at the University of York.


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