Farewell

I would like to dedicate the following to a friend from the US whom I found at my site but now will be going back home, I will miss you but you will be happy to go home-- farewell!

In Eden,
This, the beginning of the world
This the end
The world is reborn, re dead
Daily

Seasons compress
From months to hours,
Days become years,
Or seconds

I, the child of Euphrates and Tarsus
Follow
Born a millon births
Died one less death

Have I lived so many lives
or none?

And every new current,
Which sweeps me away
Kills me in its
Power

Brings me, a babe,
Washed ashore
Grows me in new words, ways, and loves
Then claims me,

At most, I remain
A memory,
At least, a deceased
Graveless soul

One day I will reach
The land at water’s edge
Where the ocean is sweet
And I walk, out of the waves
Never again

to leave

Pace of Life:
I have a shirt from my host parents that says “There’s No Hurry in Africa.” I write today, in a hurry, to absolutely negate that. I have felt, at times, much more rushed than I ever have in the US. At other times, of course, things have moved much more slowly than in the US. Things may move slowly, processes may move slowly, and, at times, people take their time. Lack of planning, lack of knowledge about resources, and dependence on others for transportation and communication leads not to “no hurry” but to uneven time. Times of long waiting are coupled with intense and frantic hurries. Time, therefore, is not slow, it is simply not very predictable.