In This Sea

 

I would swim

In the cup of this moon.

An ambient sea

Imaging around me.

 

Toll sighs clinging

To my darkling skin.

The white-wind neighing

Above this sea.

 

Returning to haunt me,

Again and again.

The luminous flames

Of my distant past.

 

“No!” They would never

Leave me alone.

I listened to the soothing

Voice within them.

 

The bell of a wandering

Cow in winter,

Like the moaning toll

Of a furrowing plough.

 

And it told me only

This long story,

I am the sound and only

Soul in this sea.

             Tendai Mwanaka

Barnwood poetry magazine