Past the moon, past the sun out of the darkness comes a flickering, fluttering shadow armoured in gold, with wings darker than the night.

Razor-sharp feathers glint below the stars where the family wait for the soul before them to give up the last fight.

The shadow covers it and carries it away.

Then, I watched it descend with the grace of falcons on the innocent blue-green gem of our planet.

khizir miah

I was particularly moved by the surprise late introduction of a personal element in the poem; the metaphor for death, seemingly the centre of the poem, is pushed to the side once the “I” comes in, heralded by the “family”. It is then we realise that the speaker is at a funeral, probably for someone close, although the “watching” suggests a distance which for me makes the situation even more moving. The end image reinforces the sense of our insignificance in the scheme of things, and I found the final image of “the innocent blue-green gemof our planet” had a beauty and subtle ambiguity which seemed to capture perfectly the simultaneous involvement and detachment one feels at extemely emotional moments.

Eva Salzman