Do you hear me trees?
Do you remember my name?
Do you recall how we sat together
And it was the world that you explained?
Now I see callous mouths
Come to instruct you gone
And the butterflies that watched us
Are singing a new funeral song.
Soft light that held us
Will you come and hold me still?
Alone in a gold world
That once with emerald was full.
Let me seek solace in memories of branches I knew.
Do you think of me trees?
I’m always thinking of you.
On an African morning,
Where the half circle becomes whole
Where sun lifts from the source, a rising flame from a bowl
Where yellow grass shimmers beneath bending blue folds
Red soil licks bare feet –
And it sticks to the soul
On an African day,
Where the river rolls like a hymn
Where colours are rich and where wanting wears thin
Where peace lives beneath branches
And branches arch in green praise
Towards the face of the sun
In sepia rays
On an African evening,
Where the African roof is a bougevvilla coloured sky
Where the laughter is deeper and smiles are bright
The voices, that are heavier,
Sing the anthems of light
Where the red dusk of the day gives birth to new night
On an African night,
Where dappled dusk falls and dappled clouds rise
Where Kudus move sleepily and the nightjar cries
Where elephants make thunder and dry sands call rain
Lightening makes art
And the whole sky is its frame
In an African soul,
Wherever a travelling soul goes,
Strength, like a mountain, still carries the bones
Deep in that place, with new seasons and old
African laughter from ribs like a river still flows
And African love runs rich and fast in the veins
Carrying the soul
That red soil has stained
Images by my dear friend, Alexandrina Fleming
https://www.anamcarafilmstudios.com/alexandrina