One Poem by Lynda Tavakoli

 

THE WINDING-SHEET

There you are,

wrapped inside the bindings of war,

only the small length of you to guess your age.

And here, your mother waits,

a stillness of grief before the unravelling.

 

No flag tells us your story,

only the merge of white on red,

as layer after layer after layer

the bandages unpick,

and through an opening

just big enough to place

a mother’s final kiss,

that glimpse of who you were.

 

So, there you are,

wrapped inside the bindings of war,

now disappeared along a corridor

of television news.

 

Some things you can’t unsee

in the unwrapping.

Nor ever should.

Lynda Tavakoli lives in County Down, Northern Ireland, where she facilitates an adult creative writing class and is a tutor for the Seamus Heaney Award for schools.

A poet, novelist and freelance journalist, Lynda’s writings have been published in the UK, Ireland, the US and the Middle East, with Farsi and Spanish translations. She has been winner of both poetry and short story prizes in Listowel, The Westival International Poetry Prize and runner- up in The Blackwater International Poetry Competition and Roscommon Poetry Competition.

Her poems have also appeared in The Irish Times, New Irish Writing. Lynda’s debut poetry collection, ‘The Boiling Point for Jam’ is published by Arlen House and includes these three poems about the different aspects of war.