janet sutherland
MAKING THE ACQUAINTANCE OF CAPTAIN SPENCER
(Alexnitza, Servia, October 1847)
Of all the travellers he was the one
who journeyed lightest: a carpet bag
and two small saddle-bags contained his linen
and an old black suit, a scimitar given him
by a Tartar Chief in Bokhara, a gun broken
in a skirmish with bandits in Arnant, a brace
of pistols and a remnant of a Regenschirm,
a Scotch plaid & mackintosh for blanket
& counterpane and an old piece of carpet
for sleeping on. With these he had passed
days and nights on the sands of the desert,
in the snows of the Caucasus. He showed me
his Firman from the Vizier Raschid Pascha
and a pass from Gialico, Chief of the Insurgents.
At Bilolia, he told us, he had found a man
just shot by robbers, the report still in his ears
as he turned a corner. The man’s vest
smoking round the wound. Thus we rode
together, agreeably, discussing Metempsychosis
and the souls of fallen angels bound to earth.
(Alexnitza, Servia, October 1847)
Of all the travellers he was the one
who journeyed lightest: a carpet bag
and two small saddle-bags contained his linen
and an old black suit, a scimitar given him
by a Tartar Chief in Bokhara, a gun broken
in a skirmish with bandits in Arnant, a brace
of pistols and a remnant of a Regenschirm,
a Scotch plaid & mackintosh for blanket
& counterpane and an old piece of carpet
for sleeping on. With these he had passed
days and nights on the sands of the desert,
in the snows of the Caucasus. He showed me
his Firman from the Vizier Raschid Pascha
and a pass from Gialico, Chief of the Insurgents.
At Bilolia, he told us, he had found a man
just shot by robbers, the report still in his ears
as he turned a corner. The man’s vest
smoking round the wound. Thus we rode
together, agreeably, discussing Metempsychosis
and the souls of fallen angels bound to earth.
- Note: the poem uses found material from the journals of my great, great grandfather who travelled to Serbia in 1846 and 1847.
Copyright © Janet Sutherland 2019
Janet Sutherland has four collections with Shearsman Books, most recently Home Farm in January 2019. Her poetry has appeared in anthologies and in magazines such as Poetry Review, New Humanist, London Magazine, New Statesman, Spectator. She received a 2018 Hawthornden Fellowship. Her work has appeared previously in Molly Bloom 8 and 15.
