Thanks Thelma

This poem's been rolling through my mind since I did some yoga this morning. Funny how you don't read something for ages and then suddenly it pops up from the depths of memory. It's not done much for my ability to meditate, wade through a World Development Report or start writing an article on post-disaster healthcare, but there's always tomorrow, right? And Grace Nichols does write some beautiful lines...

Waiting for Thelma's Laughter

You wanna take the world

in hand

and fix-it-up

the way you fix your living room

You wanna reach out and crush

life's big and small injustices

in the fire and honey

of your hands

You wanna scream

cause your head's too small

for your dreams

and the children

running round

acting like lil clowns

breaking the furniture down

while I sit through

it all watching you

knowing any time now

your laughter's gonna come

to drown and heal us all