04-22-2014, 11:08 AM
Mount Kilimanjaro rises lush
above the dusty roads that channel
business towards Arusha,
a city built to collect foreign currency.
We change money, plan trips and dance,
then spend the next weeks on long
rides through nowhere with their silent
sleepless nights and brilliant
days illuminating running herds,
the daily markets and evening laughter
of stand-off trading, who'll best
who. Then back to Arusha, to dance
all night and buy a way to Zanzibar.
Zanzibar, free to roam back alleys
because all eyes were on the tourists,
it seemed the whole island knew
what each of us had done each day.
Printed fabric and fish in coconut milk,
swimming, swahili and grins.
The wipeout of standing
where the kidnapped
waited, the land
still holds their desperation,
the ocean endless.
above the dusty roads that channel
business towards Arusha,
a city built to collect foreign currency.
We change money, plan trips and dance,
then spend the next weeks on long
rides through nowhere with their silent
sleepless nights and brilliant
days illuminating running herds,
the daily markets and evening laughter
of stand-off trading, who'll best
who. Then back to Arusha, to dance
all night and buy a way to Zanzibar.
Zanzibar, free to roam back alleys
because all eyes were on the tourists,
it seemed the whole island knew
what each of us had done each day.
Printed fabric and fish in coconut milk,
swimming, swahili and grins.
The wipeout of standing
where the kidnapped
waited, the land
still holds their desperation,
the ocean endless.
billy wrote:welcome to the site. make it your own, wear it like a well loved slipper and wear it out. ella pleads:please click forum titles for posting guidelines, important threads. New poet? Try Poetic DevicesandWard's Tips