Between Freedom and its Promise

(Between London and Plymouth, 2008)

I saw a Baobab
In the English countryside
Illuminated

Stood there in setting sun
Unabashedly out of place
Defiant

I passed a field of
Yachts anchored to mud with the
Promise of journeys

I passed an outcrop
Of feisty red rock covered
With a creeping green

Encroaching, though
Beautiful, colonising that
Soldier from the earth

And into the blanket of darkness
Varied sounds,
Tunneled to silence.

But then the sea stretched
Out to my left and for a moment
Everything changed…

Stretching out as far
As I could see! I thought then
I too can be free