Neil Leadbeater
The Flight Out of Rio
At 22.50
you are given instructions
on what to do in an emergency.
Knowing this night
that you would hold all things
to silence
even if it was just for
a moment
you grasp whole phrases
to catch the sound
of the last leaving of Rio.
Swallow hard
and you will hear your own heartbeat
its rapid pulse
close to the city’s core.
With your suitcase of gemstones
heading for home
you strip away assets
close to the bone.
The accomplice works
like a thief alone
packing in bow strings
bird quills, beads,
to clear whole huts
with nobody home -
the hammocks tied back
at daybreak.
Up here
after take-off,
blood gifted to foreign soils
leaks from the rooms of old museums
the compressed edges of
boxed packing
the wrappings of prized
souvenirs.
Her closest secrets
locked in cameras
are smuggled the world over.
Page(s) 43
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