Beneath the boundless African sky –
Unblemished blue overhead
And sun-bleached white on the horizon –
There is an endless African road:
Stretched long and shimmering straight
Tirelessly chasing its own vanishing point
Crossing the vast African bush –
Khaki-clad with stone buttons flashing silver
And mottled coat of green-brown and yellow-red –
Is a determined African bus:
A melting pot of tenacious travellers
Bubbling with the bright colours of adventure
They find a snaking African river –
A watery ribbon teeming with life
That quenches all who visit its cool shores –
Fraying into a wide African delta:
A floating Eden world
With arms open wide in swampy embrace
En route are remote African towns –
Echoing with fish-eagle cries of freedom
And donkey-plodding hopes for the future –
Nurturing countless African dreams:
Termite-mound aspirations reaching skyward
And ferry-chugging crossings to peace and prosperity
Among them is a wistful African poet –
At home in the bushveld of his birth
And at rest in the sands of the wilderness –
In search of eternal African mysteries:
The eroded ways of ancient flow-lines
And native answers to thirsty questions
— Wayne Visser