Two Poems
Selima Hill, 15 March 1984
‘Are you ready?’ calls the German archaeologist, standing with his back to the sun. ‘We need to see the tent behind you.’ Gertrude Bell steps over the guy-ropes. She’s got a horrible cold – caught by lying in a draughty hall drawing the plans of Ukheidir.
‘When I ask my men,’ she explains, ‘to help me...