JENNY JOSEPH
Patriotic Poem Against Nationalism
1.
Is it too bright for you, darling?
Under the yews in the churchyard
Inland from the town, into the hills, up the lanes
It is cool and green-shadowed and quiet; and there
LYETH the Bodi of Ann David
Who died the 21 st January 1784
Aged one month - so born just about Christmas.
And you are two days, born into flaming June.
2
Many the infant children buried here
Beneath elaborate tiles, and graved slate
Polished hard and clean with the lettering
As clear as the day it was done.
Memorials, important, memories solid
For each little scrap of throw-away life
Slate thick and heavy as marble
but dimmer
- for a newborn child
And, absorbing the light, seeming more part of the earth.
The hillside sleeps in the morning sun, in the years
Of sleep that have come to this place.
Beyond the shaded porch-path, out in the field
Light pours unwinking on the bright new graves.
3.
"Genth" I shall call you, who have no Welsh in you.
Little Welsh girl, little scrap born in Wales.
We have no W clsh in us, and I no drop of Celti c.
But I more than you likely to learn these stones
And I, for no reason, more likely to learn this language.
