A Distant Nearness
From his hands white, hang blood
diamonds and fur, keys to boardrooms
and shoes shined for climbing
ladders, a cushion upon which to sit
at the table. The eyes of a black man,
glittering, see a seed in his hand without
soil in which to sow. An Indigenous
woman’s face fades from a missing
person’s poster, one of the Canadian two
thousand. A millennial dresses for a party
as an American Indian, red stripes on
their face, drunk in a plastic tepee. When
you grazed your knee as a child, what colour
plaster covered your skin? As one family tosses
out cartons unopened, bought but not
eaten, another father stands counting coupons
cut, in a queue snaking. I introduced my
boyfriend and came out; you just brought
your girlfriend round for tea. Somewhere in
Central London a polar bear was spotted
sweating and thin, trawling bins for scraps.
Copyright © Thomas Harrison | Year Posted 2020
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