public bench

public bench – 2002 – oil on canvas –  73 x 60

The Migrant Beggar and the Bench


There is a warmth in wood like words;
this bench in beech is whispering
to him to pose his sack of clothes and listen,
the white stone walls are witness …

and so he stops and stares and strokes
the bench, removes his shoes,
and tries to recollect the word,
before he sits and smokes and hears
the warm wood whisper close;

and hearing he receives the word
and knows it as his own,
the bench is warm and eloquent,
he smiles to hear his mother tongue
and bends towards his shoes and clothes
to whisper the word ‘home’.


            Erica Collier, November 2008