A half moon in Lamu

A half moon in Lamu

The hot sun climbs fast

From darker blue to lighter blue

And the darkness suddenly dissipates;

Water in

Water out

The wind blows incessantly 

Not too slow, not too fast

Sufficient to undress you;

Water comes in

Water goes out

The stars so plentiful,

So tiny yet so big,

So far away and so bright,

They will make you feel small,

And not one, not two,

But three whole galaxies

Making you face your own insignificance;

And the water comes in

And the water goes out

Until for one night only,

One out of twenty-eight,

The Moon and the Sun 

Meet, 

           melt, 

                     unite,

Day and night,

Silver and gold;

And the water comes in even closer

And the water goes out even further

Then the horizon:

Finer line amongst vastest blues,

Spirit, earth, water, fire, air,

Big mouth that swallows

The sun, the moon, the stars, the self;

And the water comes in

And the water goes out

And you aimlessly flow

In the soft lulling of the waves

In the overwhelming strength of the current

Water comes in

Water goes out

Until finally you are washed away to the shore,

A long forgotten plastic biro

With nothing left to say,

With nothing left to learn

A plastic top with no more water to hold,

With no message to contain,

With no bottle to cap,

A beautiful smooth old piece of driftwood,

From some distant lush shore,

Bare, naked, exposed,

Half buried in the sand,

Under the fearsome Lamu Sun.

Water in

Water out.

A.M.B

January 2018