Serengeti, and: Uhuru Peak
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Serengeti
Africa is billowy primrose cloudson sky blue canvasbarefoot Masai boys wearing red plaid blanketsherding scrawny goats and cattleover ruddy, dry earth, purple-green foothills—our primal ancestral common ground
Thompson's gazelles graze sparse dry grassGiraffes browse on thorny treetopsLoping in slow motion across the Serengeti plain—A ballet of pachyderms crossing in deep water, single-fileAn elegant leopard languishes on naked limb of ancient tree
Uhuru Peak
On our fourth day of climbing Kiliwe set off for the summit at midnightwith flaming hearts and numbing fatiguewe climb the steep gravel-granite slopepole! pole! slowly! slowly!
Thinning air causes catharsis at 5000 metersI strain to lift and stretch leaden legsto stand on a huge spinning stoneas searing pain grips my groinI lose control of my gut
Promontories dance in purple hazepole! pole! slowly! slowly!each step an eternityon the stairway to heaven
On Gilman's point sunrise signals its arrivalwith banners of pink purple and yellowspanning the eastern horizon
Then explodes in blinding sun [End Page 230]
Tomás Gayton was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, the grandson of African American pioneers. He began writing verse soon after graduating with a Juris Doctor from the University of Washington, and is a civil rights attorney/ activist and world traveler who lives in San Diego. Tomás's most recent volume of poetry is Vientos de Cambio/Winds of Change, published by Poetic Matrix in 2005. Others include Yazoo City Blues, Time of the Poet, Dark Symphony in Duet, with the late Sarah Fabio, and Two Races, One Face, with John Peterson. Tomás's work is also featured on his website, www.sambajia.com.
