Published in Planet: the Welsh Internationalist, 185 (October/November 2007).  Honorable mention in the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Prize 2006.

Dhaka: Dawn

The worn-out night allows dawn

entry into fervent white skies. Black

crows circle in luminous air,

shimmer dark in ferocious winds –

winging their way straight into the night-eye of the sun.

Dhaka: Noon

It’s as if there were the sounds of doors

opening and shutting all around.

The day yawned its boredom

winking sunlight on the black street

waiting outside my window.

Dhaka: Night

Darkness descends

glossing over certain pages of memory

we’d rather not see.

The street below is empty now

of hurrying feet, impatient wheels.

The street flows quietly on to the heart of the

city – silent and sleepy.

Except now and then

the soft baby-tread of the late returners

whispers damply in the after-rain hush

as they search their way home.