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
- Yes Dear by Mary Etta Metcalf
- The Tree poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Befire the Battle by Thomas Moore
- Алексей Ржевский – Прости, Москва
- A Melody By Scarlatti poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Mother, I cannot mind my Wheel by Walter Savage Landor
- Олег Бундур – Сломанное дерево
- Ольга Берггольц – Приятелям
- Владимир Высоцкий – Жизни после смерти нет
- Hymn To Death poem – Alfred Austin
- Clear, with Light, Variable Winds poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Freemen by John Oxenham
- Incommunicado by Sylvia Plath
- The Rice Was Under Water
- The Dreadful Has Already Happened by Mark Strand
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.