Children with First Sight-Poems
We are grateful to Suresh, Pooja, Azaz, Neehar, Rita, Dipika, Suki, Vikram, Ladulal, Mukesh, Poonaram and Kumlesh from rural Rajashtan who composed this poem with British poet Caroline Bird. All the children had their sight restored by cataract surgery.
The Runaway Goat
It’s my job to bring back the goats
from the field at the end of the day
and I’m injured inside if a goat runs away.
If a goat runs away, I’m cracked
on the ground like a tea-cup of clay –
it’s my job - after all - at the end of the day.
If I could pay, I’d chase my goat
over the hills in a big white bus,
a megaphone booming ‘come back with us!’
‘Come back with us,’ the hospital says,
in their big white bus. They can’t find
my goat. But they can cure the blind.
Curing the blind is a doctor’s job.
Darkness. Then a festival of light.
My job is keeping the goats in sight.
Sight in both eyes can still lose a goat.
Tomorrow I will look anew.
I bet the same thing has happened to you.
