‘The Boy’ is set in Afghanistan, a place that has been greatly affected and damaged by war. The speaker is taken through the city by a boy who lives there. Take turns reading the poem aloud in pairs.
The Boy By PJ Harvey
Boy speaks, Through the old
Follow me. city streets
you follow him past the tents through the fog
and excrement.
Smile at him. He smiles back leads you past wooden shacks and open gutters. Put your feet
Don’t fall in. in his footprints.
Bullet holes in the walls form a map of the world. Giant door with a key. Boy turns;
Follow me.
Young boy in your face every loss I can trace. Follow you enter in.
