This week’s poem, a musing on sleepless nights and the thoughts we keep at bay.

What if?

Awake when I would have been sleeping

You’re pale at foot-end of my bed

I snub you, cling tight to my pillow

Hoping dream signal’s misread

Dark, dull drone of night in far distance

Offers no shelter, no lies

Sleepless blankets no comfort

Can’t keep out the glow of your eyes

I know chants, I’ve learnt meditation

Beautiful memories shared

A shake of your head sends them fleeing

This time is your time, you’re prepared

Dread of too late, no way back now

Horror of prices unpaid

Fear of un-trodden pathways

Unfulfilled plans that I laid

Imagine the pigments of difference

Shades of alternative lives

Colours, hidden in daylight

Stand bright in the darkness of night 

Kampala 2018

This week’s poem inspired by the stunning Ankole cattle herds around Lake Mburo area, and the people who have breed these spectacular livestock. Whatever the motivation behind selecting for big horns generation after generation, the result is a sight to see.

Ankole Breeders

Why would you breed for such horns?

Herds resting in African shrub and bush,

Gentle giants in a landscape of thorns,

Hidden in green, marked by

Clean, curved lines,

A leafless forest of horns

I’ve heard they help to keep bodies cool.

Damp-muzzled, calm-featured, deep red hides matching

Raw soil of anthill mounds,

Clear watchful eyes beneath

Clean, curved lines,

A leafless forest of horns

Economists count in kilos, in liters of milk,

Something more than for kids and early morning tea,

Before grazing with zebras

Beneath thorny trees

Clean, curved lines,

A leafless forest of horns

Some other value, some unmeasurable gain,

Breed for status, beauty, unspoken art,

A sense of creation,

Bovine red against green,

Clean, curved lines,

A leafless forest of horns.

Rwakobo Rock, Uganda, 2018