THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Come and find me in this garden;
I know not where the hours go.
Palm fronds brush against my cheek –
Lone toadstool, blush of mallow.
They say this is the Garden of Eden –
Rocks of lichen, red yucca.
But I think this is probably heaven –
Birds-of-paradise and vinca.
You will find here a green shelter;
Shade fills the inner sanctuary.
Canaries whistle o'er yonder –
Dew drops on a banana leaf.
Let's be as kids like we once were;
Take my hand, let's go find its end.
Make a wish on a four-leaf clover –
White passion vine, black-eyed Susan.
Heaven can wait if we persevere.
Let my bosom be your headrest.
Morning glories open to the day;
Sure feels like we're heaven-blessed.
~~~~~~~
What a curtain Bisbee has
That keeps Mexico subdued
And influences the lands
From which the Sierra was hewn.
What purple folds keep Oaxaca
As a fortress in the sky
Breaking only in Panama
To let a vessel dredge by.
No courier have I on hand
Except the initial breezes that blow
So a whisper I channel into it:
Give to Colombia my hello.
~~~~~~~
Kalimba notes drift out
To my delighted ear
As if the Matobo plains
Were conveyed from afar.
The tines - reverberating -
Complete an ethereal bar.
Each bar - artfully plucked -
Speaks kindly to my heart.
~~~~~~~
Rare and stark is the isolated island
In its heart - its bipolar mood
And it stokes within the imagination
A fire - a want of pursuit.
Its knobby fingers reach out to a black sea -
Bringing roamers to some land's end;
