South African Triplet

 

At Cape Agulhas

Southernmost toe of Africa,

Where oceans meet

‘Come here often?’

Indian warmth and Atlantic chill,

Lukewarm confluence at best.

Waves of Antartica

Boom against Africa,

Broken by Agulhas

No further hurt to her mainland.

Their ice broken,

The crash turns caress

Sending currents onward inland,

Wastelands waking.

North too fights a chill,

Thameside breezes

And Galway gulf stream,

My Agulhas against the Arctic.

Cape Agulhas, South Africa, April 1999

Still At Agulhas

You ask why.

Why walls of water,

Why the wide horizon,

Why the birds, the rocks?

Why, with you, is all behind me

An Africa at my back?

Why so much visible

When so much is unknown?

Why are you my horizon,

Beyond you

Nothing?

Why passion,

Breaking at its crest?

Why gulls wheeling,

Your spirit diving

And soulful soaring?

Enough why.

Cape Agulhas, South Africa, April 1999

Why

Why?

Why waves, why Africa, why sea,

Why the wide horizon,

Why gulls, why rocks?

Why underwater passion

Breaking white as a wave

Why, with you, is all behind me

An Africa hiding behind me?

Why so much visible

When there’s so much unknown

And so much more to know.

Cape Agulhas, South Africa, April 1999