Kicking Leaves Through Dappled Sunlight

Iraq’s Christians ‘close to extinction’ after 2000 years

Photo by Museum of Ours on Unsplash

Iraq’s Christians ‘close to extinction’ after 2000 years.

The British fell on the Somme, Verdun, Passchendaele,
Their luckier cousins long ago set off across the broad Atlantic
Convicts moved straight on to the antipodes
To the Swan River of Western Australia
Convict scum of the East End born to live again.
The ragged Scots, after Culloden
So many Irish everywhere in the Empire
After the famine.
The Raj with the spice and opium settlements in Shanghai,
Every mountain climbed
All oceans crossed
And we couldn’t give a flying toss.

Now only the scrag-ends remain.
Whenever I see a death date,
Say 1989, I think in 1986 she had three years
Left to live.
Except in this case, he was born and died in 1985.
His blue-blue eyes.
Make me think of the Aztecs, the Andes
Silky, gossamer, filmy wind-borne seed floating by
High, high, so very, very high, in the Andes.