Charlotte Peters Rock Poems

Lapis from Badakshan
carried by mule
guarded through Peshawar
spread as far as Cleopatra
...

Whisky on smoke
of the words between words
that the singer enjoys
...

By the fire
for the last time
the woman held her coat
out to the blaze
...

It was this way
The guns of The Empire were placed
bristling outwards in Lion City
at the bottom of a continent
...

On the borders of Namibia
Atlantic rollers batter shifting dune
belly-creeping to the water's edge
swept out on the tide and back
...

They razed their houses
killed their gracious men - and women
wept and children died in carnage
...

When your great-great-Grandmother
sold across the brush of cotton
was singing songs of Africa
and working under lash and lock
...

Fearful in the living room
she found a desperate way
to slow the bedtime ritual
...

Bamboos shiver in silent falling ice
Inconsequential
Frivolous as dragonflies
or Birds of Paradise
...

His first murmur ringing on
The ear of life’s beginning
Communication tongue
Waving into bells of air
...