A flake of gold I found in your soul
A boom town it shall never be,
Except for the one digging your hole
How you were left suffering.

Curse those murderous mines
And **** those mosquitoes,
I wish it were me a thousand times
Your soul off to greener meadows.

Don't be scared to cross the gate
Baron Samedi now guides,
Loneliness to acclimate
A widow's final goodbye.


"I never knew afterwards for how many hours of that journey I had flown with a corpse for company because, when I landed, the man was quite dead." ~ Beryl Markham

1.
Magpies sang of an avian astray
Silence soared over the African horizon
Last seen heading Serengeti's way
Off your perch daughter of Poseidon

Pegasus tame ascended heavens sky
Looking for smoke risen or a glisten
Over the Serengeti and Masai
Waning nights turned to
                                        waxing fright lead to
                                                                ­              prayers of frisson

2.
Emergency at Victoria Lake
Three hundred and fifty mile detour
A miner in need, a friend forsake
Beryl, an angel with the cure

Her wings not heroic nor romantic
Just a job at an uncomfortable hour
Lacking of sleep and a dose of frantic
Set sail in the moon, Africa's flower

3.
A life saved and a tank fully nourished
Took on the life of a bird and set course
Peered out and lo and behold
A gleam
a glimmer
a glint
a glisten
a welcomed gift
a green palm among a snow so white
There she lies
Woody's delight
"All Metal"