Cover

May

Dedication

For Stephan

Title Page

Copyright

Seren is the book imprint of

Poetry Wales Press Ltd

57 Nolton Street, Bridgend, Wales, CF31 3AE

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Twitter: @SerenBooks

© Naomi Krüger, 2018

The right of Naomi Krüger to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

ISBNs

Paperback – 978-1-78172-428-6

Ebook – 978-1-78172-429-3

Kindle – 978-1-78172-430-9

A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted at any time or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright holder.

The publisher acknowledges the financial assistance of the Welsh Books Council.

Printed in Bembo by Bell & Bain Ltd, Scotland.

6:15 am

There was a boy       a very strange enchanted boy.      They say he wandered very far    very far       over land and sea.      A little shy –

Go away, I can sing if I want to –

and sad of eye –

Keep singing and they’ll go away –

but very wise           was he –

Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look –

And then one day        one magic day he passed my way           and while we spoke of many things fools and kings       this he said to me          the greatest thing            you’ll ever learn       is

just keep singing till he comes

14 January 2000

Afsana

I get off the bus and there’s a song in my head. Something from one of the Bollywood films Amina used to tape off the TV late at night. A love scene, probably. I don’t remember any words. The sky is streaked with bright pink and peach. It looks unreal behind the buildings. It looks like a backdrop. I’m early. I stand here and look at the lights on in the bedrooms, the shadow of someone behind the glass, the empty smoking shelter. This place has never looked uglier. All the windows are too small and in the wrong places. The bricks are too new. Cheap-looking. Five minutes until the shift starts. I’m not dreading going in, not like in the beginning. I just want to stand here and look at it for a little bit longer. These colours. This sky.

I take the shortcut through the gap in the fence. I can smell burning toast before I even open the staff door. Bags and coats and lockers and voices from the corridor and the smell of the place. It’s hard to pin down. In the staff room Alison is putting photos from the Christmas party on to the noticeboard.

‘Sana!’ she says, ‘just the person. Can you sort May out this morning? She’s refusing to get dressed. Gill’s already tried.’

‘Ok.’

‘She seems to like you.’

She catches me looking at the pictures.