Ann Biddle
Cooking Up Lies
(for Jack Mapanje)
Once upon a time ....
a political prisoner
was released, battle-scarred, hell-shocked, after years
and years behind bars, ill-treated, half-starved.
‘Whatever’, we asked, ‘gave you strength to survive?’
‘We lied’, he replied with a smile. ‘How we lied!
‘They allowed us no books. Lies told to each other
flowed, streaming like rain down a drain-blocked gutter.
What adventures we’d had! What marvels we’d seen!
What a wonderful future would be achieved when ....
And what apt retribution lay waiting for THEM’.
Appalled by his scars, we were eager to know,
‘Were all the guards brutal?’ He said, ‘There was one
who flung back the door, picked me out, shouting, “Come
to the Governor! Now!” He shoved me out, limping
on feet raw from lashing. I felt all eyes watching.
‘Inside his own office, he hissed, “Phone your wife!
Let her hear your voice. Give the woman a greeting.
Invent why HE wanted you. Make it convincing”.
Within earshot, he yelled, “Trough time, pig! Quit your moaning!”
Red beans crawled with weevils. I just stood there, choking.
‘My wife, for her part, cooked up lies for the children:
“Daddy’s well. He’s looked after in prison. He’s fine”.
‘Lies that cut swathes through despair, space and time -
It’s not far. Soon be home. Things are bound to get better.
We will live ....
happily ever after’.
Page(s) 12
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The