by Nalini Paul

Scattered pockets of people gather
like colonising ants
in military harmony.
Scraps, twigs and popsicle sticks
inch past on their backs.
splintered feet in the Sun.

The moths and bluebottles running the show
parade the air with buzzing and flapping,
drowning out birds – too far, too high –
with low-flying insect dances.

The flies’ many eyes keep the ants in line
while moths threaten poison powder wings.

But deep in a crevice,
beneath the height of the hype,
a feather caresses a face

© Nalini Paul

Nalini Paul is a Canadian writer who has been living in Scotland since 1993. Her poems appear in literary magazines, including Cutting Teeth, Glasgow Seeker (on-line), Poetry Scotland and Poetry Now. She teaches Creative Writing for DACE at Glasgow University and is the Writer in Residence at the Ruby Orange Gallery in Biggar, where her poems are exhibited alongside works of art. Nalini founded and hosts the monthly event, Reading the Leaves, at Tchai Ovna House of Tea in in the West End of Glasgow. It has been running since December 2003. She is currently in the final year of her PhD on Jean Rhys at Glasgow University, and looks forward to travelling to India to write a fictionalised account of her family history.