The Emigrants

(Shakespearean Sonnet)
Sara Daniels
(Carrowniskey Strand, Co. Mayo, Ireland)

On Carrowniskey Strand, the sand stretches
dun coloured, soft and sheer.
Sea suds scud and fetch
like pets at our heels, then disappear.
We press full sailed, sealed, your hooded
face in comical objection.
A watery sun brokers clouds leaden
with stormy forecasted depression.

On the turn, the wind pushes, flattens our backs,
relinquishing its power and iron pledge;
gentle now. We pause and smile, track
our footprints along the waves’ edge.
From Carrowniskey Strand we walk away from the gale,
talk of the future, when we are free to sail.

 

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Freedom to Speak

Sara Daniels

The body rings,
maple-bellied, taut strung,
born on neck and fret,
how still the air, silent the gut
when no hand
wills to touch.

My body sings,
not made of wood;
a vessel, a soft gourd.
I deliver notes at will,
free from constraints
and dominant chords.

Wells of air draw vocal sounds
past instrumental reeds,
resonate cavities, then tuned
emerge amplified
to lift dull spirits,
dispel care.

Cruel, sad heart,
that would silence my voice.

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Behind the Screen

Sara Daniels
(University of Fine Arts, Gujarat, Western India, 2012)

Four days a week takes its toll,
aching limbs hold a pose,
deep inside are wells of fear;
all hell would break loose
in the fetid, littered alleyways
of her neighbourhood

if they knew. The truth would damn
every dream of adornment,
presented, bridal, clothed,
proud, displayed
in a treasured photo album.

Her role veils tension; daring to bare
her young brown skin. A chosen few
who may view dispassionately
through artistic eyes.
Palettes coloured red,
cricket white and every blue
bruise exposed
to the chemical factory
and a half dead father.

Brushed structure, facial features
sinew, muscle, jaw-line, breast,
slatted imprints on slim
goose flesh thighs,
and dark, plaited tress.

Glass-eyed kohl-lined focus
on classroom walls,
her need and pride
on west side, assuaged
by one hundred rupees a day.

Powers of state trap her
and deem her act and profession
a female confession
of social and moral decline,
lock up her secret forever.

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