Happy Birthday, Mervyn Morris (2008)

Mervyn Morris was born in Jamaica in 1937 and studied at the University College of the West Indies and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. In 1992 he was a UK Arts Council Visiting Writer-in-Residence at the South Bank Centre. His previous collections include The Pond, Shadowboxing, Examination Centre and On Holy Week; he also edited The Faber Book of Contemporary Caribbean Short Stories and published 'Is English We Speaking' and Other Essays. He lives in Kingston, Jamaica, where he is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing & West Indian Literature.

The Lovers (after Rene Magritte)

The lovers kissing

do not see

each other, do not feel

unmediated hair and skin.

Each hooded

in an opaque swirl,

neither seems aware

of something strange.

Do not disturb.

They are in love.

Each feels a kinship

with the other’s mask.

From Caribbean Writing Today.

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