Dockside

 

 

Sat by the water for hours. Watched nothing but water.
how it was spelt out by light:

Its mass like silk blown in slow-moving wind.

or the glitter of fisted diamonds that flickered and
kicked.
as the waves caught the light
from the bounce of the sun and I squinted my eyes
and saw everyone

of those diamonds that tickled and swam.

or how the light lay like a curve
in a ripple of time, on that wet pool
and I thought of a painter
jig-sawing brushstrokes of yellow
over the salty-sea blue.
– AMNA AHMED

From New Poems on the Underground

Edited by Gerard Benson, Judith Chernaik, Cicely Herbert.