i walked., c/o Gavin Tonks., South Africa.

I walked
I walked in the dark on an African plain
While the moon and stars they stared
From the blue black blanket pinned across the sky
I stumbled against the rock-strewn landscape
While Khoi ancestors
Sang their shaman songs into the wind
Lonely and lost you looked for me
I am not there
My sons and daughters dance
Their dizzy song on my dusty face like ants
I cry dry tears of dust
For their little dry bodies beating out the rhythm of their spent lives
You chant deep into the night
Exhausted
To wait a new day – hoping to see my signs
If I have been there
The lion and the leopard – I sent to steal your souls
They swallowed you as you danced into the sky – still you did not find me there
Little children of this sand wandering against the African midnight sky
Take my soul to meet this lion – maybe then to know - If you are not there?
Children of Africa I hear your song on the distant growling of the wind
The lion’s hot breath blew against my face
From between sharp, white, teeth like clouds
The blood red mouth open, while the beast in purposeful travel moved – to find me not there
I looked for you, by the light of the worshipped moon
I know that you are there, African sky, my sad and melancholy friend
Did you so old know more than me?
Oh faithful cosmic vision, where you there?
At the beginning, did you see him then?
I walked in the cold light of an African day.

G.T.