Now the British comes to shore <br />wet and tired from colonial gatherings <br />he sits on the bench <br />in the park smoking a cigar <br />and watching ducks <br />play in a pool <br />falling asleep as the centuries <br />drift in a dream <br />wakes up looking at the carpet <br />being rolled out curry-stained <br />on the ruffled edges <br />in a corner Mahatma Gandhi <br />is eating dal and roti <br />and looking at the children <br />marking pages of the British constitution <br />they too eating <br />tandori naan and drinking chai <br />listening with intent <br />musical hummings of Rabindranath Tagore <br />and reading Gitanjali <br />as a new beginning <br />of the sun comes rising again <br />always from the East.<br /><br />Leonard Dabydeen<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/always-from-the-east/
