This week’s poem inspired by a day on Mt Elgon, in the East of Uganda, together with a big group of my new colleagues. A day of sun and rain, trekking and driving, getting close to each other and an amazing mountain.

Mt Elgon

 

From her broad shoulders to her weepy falls

Mt Elgon offers her view of the world,

Far stretching plains below,

Inside the crystal heart of an old volcano.

 

We scramble ant-like up her slopes,

Echoing our laughter in caves

Behind water curtains.

Thundering mist hides quick rolling clouds.

 

Slipping down trickling paths

Sudden rain offers risky water slides.

Blurry green dotted with pink flowers,

Banana leaf shelters and red coffee beans.

 

Cheered up-slope by morning sunshine

And clear views, she plays us sudden

Cloud tricks,

Wind whips,

Mud slips,

In an endlessly unpredictable drama

 

Drenched and mud-splattered

We return to the town below.

At sunset we admire her sparkling jewels,

Her shapely form, from a respectful distance.

Mbale, Uganda, 2017