POEMS

Drowned Woman

Who can you see when you are beneath the water? 
None but those who have stopped breathing, 
Those who have stopped speaking 
Letting the cold seep into their lungs, to stillness…
Those you will address will not be speaking 
in gusts of air, 
But perhaps bubbling water swishing whispering
The drowned can speak only to the drowned
In the language of the drowned
In inundated sound, slow motion smiles, 
And slow fingers moving like weeds
Like fish, in silent sounds
Or sounds reverberating only through water 
Blue sounds
Green sounds
Sounds only the drowned can understand

Who listened when she spoke?
Who heard her cry of drowning? None, none turned even to look,
None came to succour.

Who drowned her? Father, brother, mother, spouse…


All around us on the street dance drowned women, see,
Their eyes, backward looking, unfocussed, 
Their words, the words repeated once too often
Unthought words
Words that must be said
Unknowingly the same, 
Actions that must be done,
Unknowingly the same


Who drowned them? Father, mother, brother, spouse…
The man on the street and the undrowned women too.

Refused to see her drowning
Refused her aid
A deaf ear to her cries
Until they became muffled, silenced
In her drowning
And though she was drowned
They looked upon her and could not see her  
Their eyes so used 
To the usefulness of drowned women.