Both "OGUN" and "Identity card" display pain and hard work pressed into rock or wood and some satisfaction being released. In OGUN the old man is consumed with anger and poverty and finds his solace in woodwork. Towards the beginning of the poem the wood is portrayed as white and pure, forming masterful creations under his hands, but as the poem progresses it is revealed to be "eaten by pox, ravaged by rat", yet he always was able to work with it and become intimate with it, "explore it's knotted hurts" and feel its pain as well as his own. He poured his anger into the wood, creating a physical representation of it.
In the same way, Mahmoud poured his hard work and his frustration into mining, and expressed that he got garments and food for his children "from the rocks". He feels an intimacy with the rocks in a similar way that Braithwaite feels an intimacy with the wood.
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