Saturday 24 October 2015

Dorothy's Dilemma

Dear reader,

Thought for the Week.

I have had a really bad cough this week and  so I have had few interesting thoughts  except for how to stop coughing.  But I did think about  an 18 year old girl from Bangladesh.  Shumi Akhtar had been the victim of an acid attack from a man who had proposed marriage, which she had refused.  He then attacked her.   Her face was completely disfigured and she had lost her sight. But after eight months in a hospital she, very bravely I thought, decided she would go into the town and sit in a cafe knowing people would laugh and stare at her.  And they did.  So bravery is what I have been thinking about.  Whenever I read about someone being brave I am full of admiration, and  wonder how brave I am myself. Until we are tested we cannot know, but I am not sure how I would be.
                                                                         *




The Dorothy in the next poem is Dorothy Wordsworth, taken from something she mentioned in her journal.



Dorothy's Dilemma

Dorothy slowly rode the hill,
eating potted beef and sweet cake,
she glimpsed, growing in green moss,
three primroses in full bloom.

Should she pick them?
December primroses in a jar
adorning the kitchen table
was a temptation, a pretty picture.

She pondered long, then left them
to enjoy the fecund earth,
their natural home,
their rightful place.
Days later, she saw with joy, nestling in the moss,
her primroses, flourishing,
uninjured by cold or rain
or human hand.

Very best wishes, Patricia


No comments:

Post a Comment