far from the african hills

we shut out the sun with light curtains their colour
recreating that of ancient tropical forests with green upon green
in shapes of leaves and flowers and the play of sun on leaves and branches

we shut out the dark with those curtains the green now deeper in the lamplight
the lightness of the night sky outside ignored as we go about
our duties our preparations for rest and sleep and the next day

we live in rooms that replicate the forests where our
forebears first roamed where the feet of men and women first felt the mould
give way beneath them and perhaps one thought that someday

the rain would be kept off and the leafmould turned to carpets
and the light supplied by wires from a distant place
and his felllows looked at him astonished and shook their heads