Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Midnight on the banks of the Danube
               on the Hungarian side;
summer -
              warm and balmy.
Ibrahim hid,
drew his wife and children closer to him.

The water in their way        flowed
dark and fast in front.

The scene was repeated mere metres away
in other frightened faces -
                 lifetime faces of neighbours from
their village in Kosovo -
roots now displaced           their
fleeing feet now formed
                                         poised
to reach for another far off life
not far         ironically
beyond the flood before them,
both harbinger of life fled to
                                      and dread of death,
regret for the life fled from in a floating world -
temporary -
feet fleetingly touch the ground.

Jumpy players, pawns
                                  who are forced to dice with life as
                                                 sellable commodities
beside a border controlled by river depth and distance
between banks
                            and electric torches of hope that
disguise
             the dark uniforms of disillusion
worn by guardians of the place they want to be.

While the guardians approach
                                  the game others played
                                                                    of friends
with their hastened lives
shifts quickly back to first square
                                                   with the option
to risk all and play again.