A Poem by Olly Peel

I See I Have Been Removed

 

It is strange how the wind took my words

From the Engadin – its glassy Sils

Where, I swear, I saw my name

Inscribed for a time –

Somewhat higher

In its beginning,

And danced me down

The shaded Val Fex (where lesser

Runs to greater)

To move, finally, amongst your darkening sense

 

I sign, I take account,

But am mistaken by my auditor,

Significantly so;

I respond – you rise up –

And leave the room,

Caring little for raised words

 

That valley comes to me again –

It and I are the thing –

Perceived much

And Set within a frame

 

I cannot go again –

Twice to speak the same –

And call you back;

I try, but I hear in my voice

A voice unascribed

 

So I have called myself to your dock;

Here I sit, waiting not on judgement,

But on consequence;

I hear – I pronounce –

 

Orphan, you have hated your father

Wrongly: his intentions were only good;

So, sojourner, go and live among them –

See what they will say of you

 

I found her discursive this afternoon;

I wish she would find her point,

But often I find her elsewhere

(And I with her: I am rarely where I am)

 

Do not tell me I fell because of ambiguity;

I fell because, not grasping, I reached

 

– I am an irresponse–

Created, creating, under your creation

 

That bloody gate has ruined me;

But I – lying on my side, if I remember –

Was dead long ago –