African Memories

A breeze brought me the scent of Africa today, that indefinable smoky

acrid nose-twitching aroma

tinged with vanilla

from the winds of Madagascar.

I closed my eyes...

savored the spicy fragrance As a breeze brought me the scent of Africa today.

Transported far from Florida's sandy soil

to tawny burnt brown grasses of Zimbabwe.

Baobab trees, mopani bushes and acacias

those faraway places of my youth.

Bundu towns, Bembesi, Balla Balla

and my home in Bulawayo. A breeze brought me scenes of Africa today.

Round rondavels with peaked thatched roofs,

the blue hills of Motopos...

girls of the Matabele tribe

bundles of firewood on their heads -

they strode with an easy gait,

the air filled with their singing. A breeze brought me the sounds of Africa today.

Then the ocean claimed that pungent gypsy-wind,

I am back on Florida's sandy shore,

Africa just memories once more.

I yearn for another day

A day when I can say, A breeze brings the scent of Africa to me.