FRESH YA SHAMBA

keeping out the sun
i travel this road
Morogoro road
many times
this last time
from Dar Es Salaam
towards Kilimanjaro
wondering which way is home

Masika rains come
winter clouds hang
on mountains
Masai and cattle
cover hills like living-room curtains
keeping me out

a place with no cassava
no pili-pili
only nazi and ndizi
old women sit in streets
shrinking plantains over coal fires
his mother's office is near here

a street
a dala-dala
one hundred t-shillings
and i am on my way

Triding over Moshi
the place where smoke rises
letting my simple heart lead
like Catholic Missionaries

a simple thing really

in the dark of Mandara's peak
she will meet her son's choice
moyo spread open
wondering if salt is there
somewhere beneath trees
and red dirt evaporating a new wife
wondering what water is left