Poetry by Shaymaa Mahmoud and John Brantingham
My people immigrated here
from a little town near Nottingham Forest
and in the high romance
of childhood, I decided
that I must have Robin Hood’s
blood inside me
whether Robin Hood existed or not.
And if he did, I suppose I do
and probably the sheriff
of Nottingham and Little John
and whatever heroes and villains
and royalty and peasants,
and I suppose none of this matters.
This was just a boy dreaming
that he could be heroic,
and I don’t want to be a hero
anymore. My dead whisper to me
that to be quiet and kind is enough.
Shaymaa Mahmoud and John Brantingham are a father/ daughter writing team with hundreds of publications and over twenty books between them.
