By Jack Mapanje, Malawi/UK (Published in Issue 15)

 Grandpapa Traveling?

 (For Nathan David, 2012)

On the road again;

this time bound for 

sands of the Sahara 

to hunt wild kudu 

where lions roam

among the gazelle;

indeed twenty grey 

years in one morass 

was a miracle; and 

this time, son, don’t 

botch it, don’t fear, 

fight or mock those

vulture-beaked men 

or freckled hunchback 

women who block 

your way draped in 

vipers; milk all drops 

of their wisdom for 

you to leave your foot 

prints not your lips 

there, as sages said

once upon a time.

Jack Mapanje is a visiting professor at York St John University, North Yorkshire, UK, currently on sabbatical leave in the Department of English, University of Botswana. He has published five books of poetry, edited and co-edited four anthologies. His latest publication is the highly acclaimed prison memoir And Crocodiles Are Hungry At Night, Ayebia Clarke Publishing Ltd, Oxford, Dec. 2011.