He gives her all the configurations
of Europe.
She gives him a cloud burst of parrots.
He gives her straight blond hairs
and a white frenzy.
She gives him black wool. The darkness
of her twin fruits.
He gives her uranium, platinum, aluminium
and concorde.
She gives him her ‘Bantu buttocks’.
He rants about the spice in her skin.
She croons his alabaster and scratches him.
He does a Columbus –
falling on the shores of her tangled nappy orchard.
She delivers up the whole Indies again
But this time her wide legs close in
slowly
Making a golden stool of the empire
of his head.
from I Have Crossed an Ocean. Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2010)
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/i-have-crossed-an-ocean-953
Poem chosen by Emilia Mirazchiyska
