Dave Ward
In A Silent Way
A woman holds out her baby. She asks for change,
for milk, for clothes. Nothing changes. The baby
does not know. She sleeps at peace in her mother’s
outstretched arms. The baby knows everything.
Waking, she sees the scornful faces, the pitying
faces, the pitiful faces, the faceless faces that
turn away, that lurch towards her. The eyes that
pry, that pierce, that do not realise they see.
The baby screams. She needs changing. Her mother
pleads for change. Her mother screams. The baby
holds her in her arms. They hold each other. The
scream is one. There is no change.
The endless rain. Grey faces, grey streets, a
sullen river of endless pain. The walls of the
cathedral hug them close as motherhood. Madonna and
child. Statues here. The walls are harsh. A harsh
grey stone. An unloving, unloved mother.
The baby feels the pain is feeding her. Unyielding
hunger. Her mother pleads again. There is no
change. Only hunger. Only rain.
Miles Davis, ‘In A Silent Way’ (Zawinui), C.B.S., 1969.
Page(s) 47
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