Waiting for the Moon

I begun writing poems of my African childhood when my children were little, and I knew little about poetry. Imagine my surprise when many years later, Dianne Murray-Charatt, choir director of Gaudeamus Choirs of Halton Hills, asked if I might have some poems for their African themed concert. I searched for my hard copy manuscripts of those poems saved long ago on 5 1/4 floppies. So many of the poems missed the mark but some still appealed. I typed them afresh on my computer, editing and refinishing them before sending to Dianne for her pick. Three poems made it into the show. Here is one of them:

Waiting for the Moon

It was a dark night

And all the lights were out

We sat down on the doorstep

And waited for the moon

We heard the crickets cry

They called the bats to fly

Boka, the dog lay down to rest

And mosquitoes hummed in our ears

Nima told a story

Rama sang a song

Bella and I told riddles

And Nana fell asleep

We saw the fireflies glow

We felt a cool wind blow

We drew our covers tight

And then moon came out

A frightened bush-cat screeched

The distant owl shrieked

A dark cloud blotted out the moon

And Bella whispered, Ghost!

And then the thunder boomed

And lightning kissed the moon

Just as raindrops fell on us

We all run inside