The trick is not putting the fire too high.
 
He scoops out crispy moons.
 
 
 
 
licking the nose of the lost English.
 
One saw a cicada
 
flew barking in the ether
 
 
 
 
pomegranate-avocado,
 
angry as an ancient monster,
 
doused in dirt.
 
harvest had finished
so there wasn’t much
storm and all the trees
 
take you to the coral reef.
 
 
 
 
curled with lashes
 
jewels
but being unfamiliar
 
Hama Suthoo
 
who calls for his starship, mouth mouthing
 
eating jamballac
 
as they hang from the branches.
 
it’s too late, and her cold hasn’t gone.
 
Bol renversé: Literally ‘upside down bowl’, a special rice dish
 
 
 
 
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Log
 
 
Kiran and I stay in her mother’s old home. Like a little wattle and daub Tudor dwelling the house is made from beams from the mountain and painted white, but roofed with corrugated metal sheets. Her mother and father built this haven helped by the oldest children. Dev, second son, carried the longest log.
 
 
Last night we went up to the place where they had found the trunks and branches. Long ago there had been a big storm and all the trees had blown over. The government announced that anyone could take the uprooted, broken wood.
 
 
The clouds cleared and we beheld the starry archer aiming his bow beyond Port Louis. The children stayed in the minibus, chattering.
 
 
The minibus company has grown into a major service with seven buses and four charioteers. Dev and Jay do not drink; not Red Label, not sweet Johnnie Walker. But sometimes they do on Bank Holiday because then NOBODY wants to drive.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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This VSK Project is a sample from Jude Cowan Montague, The Goodroyals of Terre Rouge, published by Dark Windows Press in 2013.
 
Jude and Daniel Lehan’s CARDBOARD PASTORAL is a VSK Project here.