The Sunday Poet: Mano Suttner

Mano Suttner has published work in literary journals in Australia, South Africa, Israel and the UK, and his work has been anthologised in four different anthologies. In 2007 his collection Hidden & Revealed was co-published by Snail Press and Quartz Press. He can be reached at mano@justalittlegreen.net

 I bequeath to my children



I bequeath to my children
the Pomegranate tree
and if fire devours it
I bequeath to them the charcoal

I bequeath to my children
the piano keys
chipped like teeth
from chewing notes
their granny played
In Benoni and Johannesburg
and their mother played
In Joburg and Sydney
I bequeath to my children
the Hebrew books they cannot read
and the Yiddish ones I cannot read
but keep
as a vague monument to an amputated limb
I bequeath to them the English books
the big words and the small
enjambments, commas and full stops
with the caveat that
no matter how delightful
the pointing finger
will never be the moon
I bequeath to them time in the garden
I bequeath to them time with friends
I bequeath to them time with creatures
that do not speak with words
I bequeath to them my memory
and to them I bequeath
my tidal heart

----Mano Suttner