May 8th, 2020
by Marvin Thompson
This poem is accompanied by two short improvisations by jazz pianist Robert Mitchell. You can listen to them below, available by kind permission from the musician © R.Mitchell/Bucks Music Group
"Is May The Month Of Poppies"
"In Kingston, they were buds that ran through May rain"
May 8th, 2020
For Eric Wilson
Is May the month of bluebells, smiles or death?
Victory in Europe or womb blood
spilt before a son takes his first breath
on a plantation, a pregnant belly cleft?
My partner lays the fake grass – I’m a dud
at DIY. This May we fist-fight death
like Walter Tull, goalscorer, Lieutenant
who left ape chants for the Somme’s trench songs. Mud
was dug for Eric – his sweet, soaring breath
was lost to Covid. He still knows the heft
of Dad’s coffin. In Kingston, they were buds
that ran through May rain, V signs raised to death.
Race riots blazed Newport and Toxteth
yet Britain was my army father’s love.
Should we wear May poppies for the disproportionate deaths
of Britons of Colour, Covid bereft?
My partner tells our eldest, ‘Fam or blud,
not n...’ Silence. Her warm and flowing breath
is the breath of children born to out-run death.
Mai'r 8fed, 2020
Er cof am Eric Wilson
Mai, mis clychau’r gog, mis gwenau, neu fis angau?
Buddugoliaeth yn Ewrop neu waed
y groth wedi’i dywallt cyn i fab dynnu ei anadl gyntaf
ar dir planhigfa siwgr, yn hollt mewn stumog feichiog?
Mae fy mhartner yn gosod y borfa ffug, dwi’n ddim help
wrth wneud gwaith ymarferol. Y mis Mai hwn, mi gwffiwn angau
fel Walter Tull, y sgoriwr golau a’r Lefftenant,
adawodd siantiau epa am ganeuon ffos y Somme. Tyrchwyd
mwd ar gyfer Eric – ei felys, ddyrchafedig anadl
a gollwyd i Govid. Mae’n dal i nabod pwysau
arch fy nhad. Yng Nghingston, nhw oedd y mêts
a redai trwy law Mai, dau fys V at angau.
Terfysgoedd hil trwy Toxteth a Chasnewydd, ac eto
ar Brydain rhoes fy milwr o dad ei serch.
A wisgwn ni babis ym mis Mai dros golledion anghymesur
Prydeinwyr o liw, yn chwilfriw Covid?
Mae ‘mhartner yn siarsio’r hynaf, ‘fam neu blud,
byth n...’ distawrwydd. Llif ei hanadl gynnes
yw anadl y plant a aned i ddianc angau.
© Marvin Thompson
With kind permission of the poet
Translator: Grug Muse | Cyfieithiad: Grug Muse