The Time Around Scars
by Michael Ondaatje
A girl whom I’ve not spoken to
or shared coffee with for several years
writes of an old scar.
On her wrist it sleeps, smooth and white,
the size of a leech.
I gave it to her
brandishing a new Italian penknife.
Look, I said turning,
and blood spat onto her shirt.
My wife has scars like spread raindrops
on knees and ankles,
she talks of broken greenhouse panes
and yet, apart from imagining red feet,
(a nymph out of Chagall)
I bring little to that scene.
We remember the time around scars,
they freeze irrelevant emotions
and divide us from present friends.
I remember this girl’s face,
the widening rise of surprise.
And would she
moving with lover or husband
conceal or flaunt it,
or keep it at her wrist
a mysterious watch.
And this scar I then remember
is a medallion of no emotion.
I would meet you now
and I would wish this scar
to have been given with
all the love
that never occurred between us.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Envoi poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Sleep
- Tell me not here, it needs not saying poem – Alfred Edward Housman
- Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Burns’s Statue At Irvine poem – Alfred Austin
- Collecting Milkweed by Satish Verma
- A Little Te Deum Of The Commonplace by John Oxenham
- On Elphinstone’s Translation of Martial’s Epigrams by Robert Burns
- An Essay On Criticism poem – Alexander Pope
- Алексей Ржевский – Как я стал знать взор твой
- After Yesterday poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- The Puzzled Game-Birds by Thomas Hardy
- Untitled #12 by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Protest poem by Susan King Saunders
- The High Road In Winter poem – Alexander Pushkin
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
Michael Ondaatje (b. 1943) is a renowned Canadian author and poet. He is best known for his novel “The English Patient,” which won the Booker Prize and was later adapted into an Academy Award-winning film. Ondaatje’s works often explore themes of identity, memory, and the impact of war. He has received numerous accolades for his contributions to literature and is considered a significant figure in contemporary Canadian literature.