Africa
There is still a glow in the west
The cabin is green blue light
Our instruments show pink
The sky rose yellow
Golden edged clouds ahead, then
the golden nothingness beyond
We’re ahead of the dead reckoning
St. Louis, Africa
St. Louis, Africa
The drama of modern air voyaging
A kaleidoscopic first impression
The shift of scene, complete, clear-cut
A riot of human color
Bright clothing contrasting gaudily with
Neutral backgrounds of brown plains
Streets a tropic comic opera
Feet here are the most interesting thing
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Dakar, Africa
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Darkar, Africa
The Dakar airport is excellent
Picturesquely situated
A point of command
The French have a genius for
Colonization in this part of the world
Certainly they seem miraculously at
Home in their pink city nearby
On a jutting point of land
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Gao, Africa
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Gao, Africa
About the villages
Women do the work
Killing time seems to be
The chief occupation of males
Wives are plural, I’m told
When prosperous, very plural
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N'Djamena, Africa
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N’Djamena, Africa
This is a land of opposites.
One writes from right to left
Takes off one’s shoes and
Leaves on one’s hat
Travels by night and sleeps by day
And in constructing these colorless
Beehive huts,
The roof goes on first and
the rest is built downward
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El Fasher, Africa
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El Fasher, Africa
The map around El Fasher
Holds more and larger blanks
Than any territory we traversed
Miles of dotted red lines are native tracks
According to the map’s legend
West of the city is a hilly country
Wherein the map optimistically indicates
Rivers which start bravely but after about an
Inch or two end in the oblivion of the thirsty sands
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Khartoum, Africa
Khartoum, Africa
From the heights I see the Red Sea
It is not red, but is blue
Both the Blue and White Nile are green
Beyond Arabia’s mirage, shimmering land
Across or around lays our course
From the blue Red Sea to Karachi, India,
A jump as long as spanning the Atlantic
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Massawa, Africa
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Massawa, Africa
As we fly down into
The evening shadows
I see beside the town
Great gleaming heaps
I take to be sand dunes
Are huge piles of salt
The crystal crop