My favorite place that I have never been…
I've never been to South Africa,
But I know how the sunset arcs
To meet the savana grasses
In the same hues of rust and gold.
I know how the sky is furred
Silver with stars at night
And how the rainbow
Of flowers on the veldt
Perfume the senses.
I know too
How the sharp blue air
Of the early morning
Pierces the heart
And how the song
Of the workers returning
Resonates with your soul
In same way
As the growls of distant lions.
I know all this
From the pictures you have painted for me
With words gently spoken
From my pillow,
Words that tell me
That your real home
Is not here with me.
• Elaine Speakman says… “I am an 'overgrown' (50 something years old) student who has just started on the MA in Creative Writing with Jon Glover at Bolton University. All my life I been both a lover of and a scribbler of poems, but it is only in the last 5 years (since my supposedly mid life crisis) that I have begun to take my own work seriously.”
