An Ode To the Lands I Call Home
Sitting here at my desk
Two hundred meters above
I watch the bustle of life below.
The slow moving traffic, the crowd at lunch-time
Pedestrians at the traffic lights
Heavy blue-black glass blocks towering to the skies.
In this austere concrete jungle.
A few patches of green in-between asphalt ones
A blue gum tree here and an ashen eucalyptus there
At the corner of the street.
My thoughts flee from this stifling claustrophobia
Thousands of miles away.
To the sugar sands where once we walked
In the warmth of an ever-summer sun.
Blue-green waves tumbling with unrestrained energy
Shores framed by coconut palms dense green
Stretching in an unbroken line to the horizon.
Cries of the seagulls mingle
With the deafening roar of the waves.
The shells were still white-foam laced
When we picked them from the wet sand.
Salty breeze carrying our laughter away
As we watched the fishing canoes come in
Riding on the waves.
Remember when we walked through
Golden paddy fields of ripening grain.
To sit under the ancient banyan tree by the river
Watching the canoes slide past
Carrying coir and spices from villages afar.
Trekking up mountain-paths
And down lush tea slopes.
We gathered wild jasmines and gooseberries
And sat by gurgling streams listening
To the cow herd's flute in the distance.
Returning at the peep of stars
We stood by the gate
Under the deep blue velvet folds of the sky
Listening to the rhythmic clanging of heavy chains
As the local saw mill elephant
Passes on her way back from the woods.
The air is heavy with the scent of gardenias
Only the chirping of crickets, the hum of mosquitoes
And the gentle brushing of palm leaves
Breaking the cool stillness of the night.
And, I return to the vast plains of this southern land.
Breezes that blow unchecked
From coast to coast
Over blue mountain ranges
And great red monoliths
And the sun at its mightiest here.
Unique life forms, sweet smelling gum trees,
Picturesque shores that line the coasts.
Countryside stretching to the horizon
In the flattest continent of the world.
Special this land in every way
Its beauty and curiousness of life.
The land I have come to love
The place I now call home.
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