Red Soil

The red soil is impossible to get off of your skin.

No matter how much you wash and
scrub and wipe

The white towel you dry off with still
has streaks of red from the soil.

So you use an extra bar of soap and
wash twice instead of once and
eventually you get clean.

But with so much red soil it's impossible to get it all and
eventually you find that it's found a way into the

little tiny places you can't reach with a bar of Dove and a Q-tip.

And you come home and after
6 months or even 8 there is no trace of it left
and you realize that

the red soil is actually not all that difficult to scrub off your skin
but there is just simply no way to wash it from

your heart.

Back

My last night in Nairobi I lay quietly in the dark.

Frogs conversing outside my window.

Thinking how nice it would be to get back to water pressure.

reliable toilets

chocolate

a full stomach

The plane ride home felt like months.

~~~~

And now here I am, in this place (my home) with

a full stomach and a toilet that will flush

wishing more than anything that I could find a way back

to torrential downpours

dusty roads

chocolate skin and

a satiated soul.

Another

Though it has been many nights since
I've slept beside you, curled
in your warm embrace,

my lip still trembles at the thought
of another long haired beauty
lying comfortably (unknowing)
in my place.