Poem of the week: Stillness by Pat Boran

Like two startled meerkats

sensing a predator’s approach –

the return of the king

from some battle, the arrival

of his wayward, ‘inquisitive’ son –

hoping not to be chosen

these two female servants

take a deep breath

then stand so utterly still

that not only the moment

but the greater part of recorded history

passes them by,

all the ugly intentions of the world

muttering to themselves as they vanish

back into the night.

Pat Boran’s latest publication is A Man Is Only As Good: A Pocket Selected Poems (Orange Crate Books, 2017)