Written piece
Feather Threads
Mario Gerada
Malta
About this piece
The poem is about the migration and dangers European turtle doves face when crossing the Mediterranean region. It is parallel to the dangers people face within this region due to violent conflict and when attempting to cross the sea.
Feather Threads
If peace was a turtle dove
shot
spring
flying over Malta
Aphrodite exiled
the Mediterranean
no longer home.
No rewilding here, please.
Migration,
The UK, Nigeria, Sierra Leone.
If partnership was a dove
Samoa, Antigua, Barbuda
A flight over tree canopies,
Islands
Hope becoming flesh
feathers,
an olive branch
fruit
grain
the flavour of
wild asparagus
feral green
bursting in your mouth,
and your heart.
If prosperity was a dove
vulnerable
extinct.
A Dawn
that never arrived,
threads of desire
turr turr
only the sound of shotguns now.
If resilience was a dove
remembers
the rise of cities
dovecotes
devotion,
perhaps regret.
If peace was a dove
shot
many a time
flying
carrying an olive branch
mud on her feet.