Making sense of the letters in my soup

As i gaze out on another African sunset

Black clouds gather in the distance

Creating the possibility of bad weather interrupting my highly anticipated view

Despair might easily set in

Except that i have chosen to rather be filled with hope

Focusing on the beauty that is before me and not

Giving in to the trouble that may lie on the horizon.

Hope lies firmly in sharing in all the good stories being created around me

Instead of listening to the cacophony of anger and pain rising up 

Jostling for position as to who owes what and when will it all just be enough.

Keep calm and breathe, i tell myself

Lest i, like so many others, get swept up in the distressed and depressed

Momentum that seems to be building up around me

Negating those things which would tell us everything is going to be okay

Oh, but will it? i ask myself

Perhaps i am too idealistic or optimistic or over-enthusiastic in my belief that

Questions the tide that seems to be building up so much steam

Reasonable doubt keeps me from throwing in the towel and 

Surrendering like so many who have sold everything and given all their money

To the people selling the plane tickets to the greener grass on the other side

Until you get there and glance back and are surprised by the 

View which lets you know that your grass was greener still

Where will i land on all this?

X marks the spot and right now that spot is beneath the very ground where i stand

You may kill me here but as the very first cut draws blood you will see that

Zuid Afrika runs deeply in my veins…

 

[to return to the beginning of this poetry challenge and catch up on the story so far, click here]