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.

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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

The Fig Tree

In Sunday School I learned about the big red apple of original sin in the garden. How Adam and Eve ate thereof. Caste out. Ashamed. Hid from God. What I didn’t learn— it was really a fig. They ate a few. Clothed themselves in fig leaf. Hid from God. Caste out. Separated from God. How Jesus went to the fig tree for food and finding none, he said, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” Explanation mark. A curse that lifted a curse. And the tree withered and died.

Jesus new Adam

the sin of man forgiven

reunite with God

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NaPoWriMo Day 29 prompt on curses.

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

https://smarthistory.org/ensor-christs-entry/

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.

Palm Sunday

Look at a man riding the donkey

Go with him saying Hosanna

He is the one waited for

Spread the palms at His feet

He has come to save

Sing songs of joy

Praise His name

He is

Lord

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NaPoWriMo prompt Day 9 to write a nonet. This is based on Zechariah 9:9.

Momento

When I got too haughty, my mother would say, “Who do you think you are? A Floradora girl?” I hardly knew the meaning of a Floradora girl but it was the tone of which she spoke it that made me pause my behavior. I knew she had a doll named Floradora. I didn’t know Floradora girls were also beautiful women who danced in a chorus line in the musical of the same name. Perhaps her mother had said the same to her when she displayed an air of arrogance.

Ash Grove

My great grandfather

built his home in Southern Iowa

out back was a grove of ash trees

the people called the town Ash Grove

now gone from the map

forgotten place

I can still see the changing color

of leaves falling to the ground

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dVerse quadrille prompt on the word ash

Taradiddle

This is what happens when promises are made that cannot be delivered. I gave you weapons. I gave you training. I gave you a plan of governance. I never gave you peace and stability in your own country. I put your sons and daughters on a plane as refugees. Your wife went too and now in desperation you cling to the fuselage.

Family Name

I followed my family name

to Yorkshire cemetery

where those old family headstones

held the dates of birth and death

those old Anglo Saxon names

etched upright in native stone

surrounded old Roman church

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bell tolled to gather us in

stone baptismal at the door

I drank from silver chalice

the vicar offered me

in the rite of communion

aware of ancestral lips

that had taken worship there

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I search Proctor family name

Old English word proketour

occupational surname

for those who worked as steward

from the Latin procurare

to manage spiritu cors

keeper of the key— that’s me

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NaPoWriMo prompt to delve into your name