Sunday, 27 April 2025

Rethinking a Niger Fisherman

 

Day Twenty-Seven

Manchester Art Gallery's exhibition Rethinking the Grand Tour reassesses art of the British Empire. The subject of my poem, A Niger Fisherman, can be seen on this page.



I almost wish the curator's note gone,
framing this apricot syrup sun as
pulp, squeezed through a fist;
The fishermen lit like fantasy;
Marketed beauty for turning heads 
Empire-conscious.

I stand pale
with the undepicted details.
My skin, prickled
Empire-conscious.

If I took this little rethinking card,
silenced it in my pocket,
marker-penned out the unseem'd
legacy line of Empire Marketing Board,
might it quiet this discomfort?

The sun, laid unsickly on the river.
The river, not bleeding the sun.
The mangrove, wading the river
uncurated. Unmolested.
The fisherman's net, swung
more free beneath the mangrove.

 







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