23 June 2018

‘The Path’ by Zaffar Kunial

Posted by Zaffar Kunial

On Tuesday 26 June, Zaffar Kunial will be at the shop for a night of poetry, along with A.K. Blakemore, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Amy Key and host Martha Sprackland. Book your tickets here.

‘The Path’, below, is taken from Zaffar Kunial's debut collection Us, out soon from Faber.

The Path

They’re there. To the side.
It’s hard not to stare
at the centre of the screen
and the stopped kerb.
Struck. But, dear me, look past
what the worst want you to see
and share. And, dear self, even
when the scene strays far from
headlines, when you’ve gone
alone, phoneless, stepping over
limb-like roots, and dips, and glooms
into Nutclough Woods on this
treacherous side of the hill – even still –
look to the verges, where some tiny pixel-
flowered herb, perhaps cleavers
takes hold at a sharp corner
of the descent, like a half remembered
snatch of a meme, down
past the path, through the scrolling
of a fern’s frayed edges
and where, from a few
dark millimetres of earth
a tumble of heads is clutched
as you turn yours – an anonymous
brightness almost too small
to be there, by the wayside
unmagnified. Look for
the helpers. They’re there.