Diana Pritchard
Barefoot in the Snow
Second Light Poetry Competition 2008 SHORTLISTED
It’s Africa, a safari, a trek
in heat, flies and more heat.
Lion calls drown the air
as the tall barefoot man guides
us to the waterhole.
Our packs, heavy, we struggle,
stumble into the murky wallow
of mud and elephant dung to coolness.
Unlike the coldness of grandmother’s
bared feet as she trekked, distressed,
into that Norwegian winter night,
arctic moon over deep snow,
following her lost guide,
lost to his own self, lost
to his home and hearth,
circling straight northwards
towards his childhood.
Feet beyond thawing, she led
him back to his unfamiliar bed.
Competition judged by Gillian Clarke
Page(s) 33
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