winter wish

Winter Wish


I’m tired of this winter valley the sky has seven
hues of grey, there are no donkeys left only blue
tractors reeking of diesel fume, no echo of happy
hee-haw anymore.

I will go to Congo where nature is both beautiful
and scary with roaring lions, snapping crocodiles,
ear flapping, cantankerous elephants and chest
beating mountain gorillas.

I will break in a river-horse and bare back gallop
across the Serengeti followed by crashing rhinos
flanked by laughing hyenas; arrive in Cape Town
as the biggest show on earth.

Welcomed by Desmond Tutu, he’s such a nice
all forgiving man, stable my horse near a river,
take the plane back to Portugal just as the sun
breaks through and sky is blue again.