Prison Art - Marí Peté

Sugarcane hills cradle Eshowe
this warm winter’s afternoon.
I enter into a quiet room,
step closer to counterpoints
caged by frames:

A family holding hands around a table –
yes, here, “The sun does arise,
The birds of the bush,
Sing louder around,
On the Echoing Green.” *

I am assailed
by the other painting’s
slashed, dark shadows.
Here, “The sun does descend,
Many sisters and brothers,
Like birds in their nest,
On the Darkening Green.” *

Next door a young man’s song
escapes into the afternoon:
Ninety-nine red balloons …

In the Dhlinza forest
duikers dart across the path.
Pause, nuzzle in a sunlight shard.
And I ponder the possibility
of homecoming
from experience, to innocence.

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Marí Peté (born 1964) South Africa
* From William Blake’s poem ‘The Echoing Green’
Source: Peony Moon