Project Description
Vida Kashizadeh
Vida Kashizadeh was born in Abadan, Iran and is a singer, poet and songwriter. She started writing poetry as a teenager and developed her song writing at a later stage. She has been in the UK since the late seventies.
Poem
Tonight
I realised
dogs are not allowed
To die gradually.
My neighbour from up the stairs
asked me
if I mind him
burying his dog
in the garden
I did
but my lips were sealed
his tears
and my compassion
had decided
I heard me say
of course it was alright.
Now in the early hours of my birthday
a white dog
and the weight of his body
bearing the weight of the soil
is within me.
when my ribs move with each breath
I feel
I’m a dog’s body.
Just this afternoon
I was picking another white dog’s hairs
off my coat almost swearing
a dog I hadn’t seen for nearly a year –
then remembering
her character
as this one has truly one
I softened
remembering Lisha now
makes it easy to accept
the still warm body of the dead dog
within the soil of the garden
within me.
A dog’s life
is now
really over
for him
and for me.