Poetry of Sandra Pollock: A lone flower, Kuwait 1986--Magic City--Echoes from the Past, A Paper Doll

A lone flower

A three million year old a musical instrument
was found in Iran.
The hand which taught its soul to sing
long gone;
a lone flower now blooms in its place...

Kuwait 1986 – Magic City--Echoes from the Past

Far from the soft green land that once had been an Eden
where the wadi now runs dry,
across the desert sands I flew.
I saw tall metal skeletons.
Like soldiers in a never ending line
on long thin legs they seemed to march in giant steps.
They - and the power-lines they carried -
a symbol of our hard material age..

Across the desert sands I flew
and saw the lights of a phantom city on your distant shore
drawing the blood of Mammon
Black liquid gold from deep below the sand -
blood of the fire that was soon to flood your land.

Magic lights at night I saw on the distant shore
when on weekends
alive and happy
we raced along the highway
after swimming in the clear warm waters of the Arabian sea.

I called it the city of 2001 -
but it was a chimera -
a Fata Morgana of iron and steel.
A thousand years hence
where will it be?

A thousand years? -
Less than 3 years it was
before giant black tanks raged across the desert
less than 3 years it was before the blood of fire -
black oil from the bowels of the earth,
touched by the evil hand of man -
exploded and infernal fires raged across the desert sands.

Unleashed by wrath and greed this black thick mass -
life blood of the earth and fire,
spread across the surface of sea
and choked all life within it.

A Paper Doll

A paper doll was found floating in the fountain.
The path below the fountain receded,
blending into the deep green all around,
a fine line fading in the distance…
the line dividing past from present,
death from life.

She leant forward slightly
as if weightless and let herself fall.
Deep water: embrace it!
Back into the sea,
back into space before time,
back to the source of life - to die.

Copyright 2008, Alexandra Pollock. © This work is protected under the U.S. copyright laws. It may not be reproduced, reprinted, reused, or altered without the expressed written permission of the author.

Originally from Austria, Alexandra Pollock lived in Australia for 15 years then came to Canada in 1963. In 1982 she graduated from Concordia University in Montreal with a BA in TESL and an MA in Special Programs in Education. I subsequently taught English in the adult education program both at McGill University and for the Montreal school board, as well as doing some part-time translation (German-English). In 1985 I took a teaching job at Kuwait University. Following the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 I returned to the Gulf and taught English at Bahrain University for the next 4 years.