Sand
and water
on my feet
tide going out
coming in again
as I walk a shell line
or wade in knee deep
caught in a clouded sky
between heaven and earth
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dVerse prompt on place. I think the beach will always be my place.
Diani Beach
Travel
Kilimanjaro
In space in time I sit thousands of feet above the sea May Sarton
There are many who have come to my three peaks. Shira is my easiest at 13,140 feet, Kibo my highest at 19,340 (highest peak in Africa) and Mawenzi at 16,893. It is not a technical climb but rather a feat of endurance and determination. Do not get altitude sickness or you will fail.
Hemingway camped at my feet. His interest was in hunting and taking trophy, not in climbing me. Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtscheller were the first Europeans to my summit in 1889. Yohani Kinyala Lauwo, a native, and declared member of this summit party, did my summit three times before WWI, once without shoes.
On a clear day you can see my snows from miles away. Come and see my mountain of whiteness. Come and strive for my highest summit Uhuru Peak, Freedom Peak in Kiswahili.
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dVerse prompt to use May Sarton quote in flash fiction. This is flash historical fiction with Kilimanjaro speaking.
Safari
I went to Mombasa
I did not see rain
there is drought in Amboseli
elephants are dying
wildebeests zebras Maasai giraffe
🦒🐘🦒🐘🦒🐘🦒🐘🦒🐘🦒🐘
I went to Maasai land
I did not see a bow
only spears and panga
arrows used to kill
when the loins attack
🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆
I went to Maasai Mara
to see the wildlife
thunderstorms on the horizon
got wet in the landrover
viewed a perfect rainbow
🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈
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dVerse prompt to use a threesome. My choice is rain, bow and rainbow.
Baobab
I stopped by the side of the road
witness to a baobab
mighty in age and stature—
to behold such a tree
leaves me gasping
as some have been uprooted
for export
left caged in Kilifi
subject now to law
please protect the baobabs
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dVerse quadrille using the word gasp. I have wanted to see a baobab and this one was fine. In November 2022 export of eight huge baobabs was stopped by the Kenyan government. Now they wait in cages.
One Day
Who would think that one day I would be marching to Rule, Britannia with other wazungu, one Indian and a Kenyan. We sweat together, smile and laugh in a cheerful atmosphere of aerobic exercise.
Outside the matatus and tuk tuks drive on, delivering workers and school children under the tropical sky and half-moon.
on a veranda
wait for the rainy season
to fall on us all
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dVerse prompt to write a haibun and use of the word half-moon
Traveling to Mombasa
I am travelling to Mombasa with maybe five hours of sleep over two days. Delays, delays, delays and not sure I really slept at all. The movies keep me entertained. The food is okay.
The gritty leg from Doha to Nairobi, I see the desert beneath me and the three small children traveling with their mother let out sounds like a mad cat. They cry and moan sometimes in an echo of the other and sometimes in unison. This cacophony lasts for the duration.
let out a howl
unpleasant in the pleasant
changing of seasons
Christ’s Entry
I can’t really say I loved him. Love does not come easy for me. He was my first kiss, a little bit of making out, kind words from his thin lips.
I went on to guard the pool, to save a life, my tanned olive skin a beacon for men. Then one day a man walked through the gate and I watched his choppy strokes across the water and married him.
We vowed to love art. To make art out of our lives. We traveled both locally and abroad but that huge painting on the Getty wall stays with me— Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889 by James Ensor.
When will He come?
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NaPoWriMo Day 21 prompt— a person forgotten, a job taken, a memorable piece of art, an unanswerable question
Chalk Downs
Chalk hills
exposed—
Salisbury Plains
Where downs meet sea—
White Cliffs
of Dover
I travel north—
Yorkshire Wolds
west to the River Nidd
Pateley Bridge
Summerbridge
Glasshouses
Hampsthwaite
where old Mr Wainwright
showed me the plaque
of William Makepeace Thackeray
who was burned at the stake
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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille using the word chalk.
No Interest No Plan
Só it is settled. I have no interest in going to Australia. Perhaps because it is called The Land Down Under, so just as I have no interest in dying, I have no interest in traveling to Australia. This creates a problem for my plan of visiting every country that is an island. Time to change my plans.
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NaPoWriMo Day 15 prompt to write what you have no interest in.
Serving
Oh to be able to taste again
sweet tapas of Malaga
restaurants flung wide open
olives served which we never ordered
but still had to pay for
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dVerse prompt on food. One too many servings of covid right now.
wordshophop 