“Time Travellers” by Donald B. Campbell
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Time Travellers” by Donald B. Campbell.
Time Travellers
By Donald B. Campbell
a Tibetan widow touches
eighty summers, eighty winters
ten thousand smiles and frowns
her fingertips rise and fall
across her cheek
she stands as a sentinel
on the flat clay roof
of the stone house
her grandfather built
watches a Western couple walk below
their faces smooth as yak butter or movie stars
snow leopards without spots
the boy’s tattooed arm explores
the waist of the girl’s pre-torn jeans
puffs of ancient dust
rise with their footsteps
the womanโrooted beside
her prayer flagsโsmiles at the
passing couple made of
spotlights and fireworks
thinks of herself made of
stones from the walls beneath her
Copyright ยฉ Donald B. Campbell
Donald B. Campbell is an ESL/EAL teacher in Saskatoon. His writingโincluding poetry, short stories, plays, monologues and journalismโhas been chosen in competitions and published in newspapers, magazines, print anthologies (ex. Coteau Books, the League of Canadian Poets, Off Topic Publishing, and Streetcake in the UK) and online anthologies, as well as on websites (such as the Saskatoon Public Library and Syncopation Literary Journal) and on provincial and national CBC Radio.
Subscribe to Poetry Pause, or support Poetry Pause with a donation today!