I had flown over Yugoslavia
While children lived and played
Returning, after their war and shame
We went a different way.

I hadn't seen their faces
Or known of their plight
I had been to another place
Which this poem is about

On an island of gods
In a sea of rich blue
I heard the loud chirruping
Saw no-one fight

Distant flashes of bombs
Over sea in the night
I was told were men fishing
With dynamite.

Oblivious I, while they died o'er the way
Treading gently the path
To see the cicadas
I sat down for a day

I sat on a rock in the scorching sun
Elusive they hid in my blindness, so near
A day and a day I sat on the rock
Patient, I sat, transformation begun.

As I became rock and my hair became clouds
Oleander my clothes and grasses my bower
I saw them, so close, mist had dissolved
Grasshopper faces and love for each other.