Month of Poetry, Day 14

Remember when we
went to Africa,
And lived in a mud hut,
With our solar-powered
short-wave radio?

We spoke French and
I wore that straw hat
You gave me for my
birthday.

You helped the village
men dig a well--or
was it a cistern?
A latrine?

I worked with the women
to develop a small loan bank,
a baby-sitting co-op,
a sewing circle, an apiary.

At night, drunk on palm wine
and quinine and equatorial heat,
We wrapped ourselves in Kente
cloth and darkness and sat in
front of the hut, listening for
Jackals and malaria mosquitos,
the shortwave crackling inside.

Remember when we went to
Africa and saved the world?