Hand-made

By Patrick Williamson

Neither man nor beast is free
and the fibre all between, stuck
in the gullet, driven by tides,
a styrene leer floats in our seas
it adds to the new continent.

 

Yet, hey ho, those who neglect
the present, fear a briefest future,
forces exist to clean the patch,
theseabin sucks up floating trash,
and while I breathe, I hope
materials metabolise to biomass.

 

It's tough work, but there's a spark,
inventions that sweep up oceans,
the world man rots so thoroughly,
and I wash and re-use lovingly,
my bowls, straws and spoon,
look at the ripple effect, tomorrow.

 

 

Patrick Williamson lives near Paris, France. He has published a dozen or so works. Latest collections Traversi and Beneficato (English-Italian, Samuele Editore, 2018 and 2015). Tiens ta langue/Hold your tongue (Harmattan, 2014), Gifted (Corrupt Press, 2014), and Nel Santuario (Samuele Editore, 2013). Editor and translator of The Parley Tree, An Anthology of Poets from French-speaking Africa and the Arab World (Arc Publications, 2012), he has translated notably Tahar Bekri, Gilles Cyr, Guido Cupani and Erri de Luca.