Found Poem
Two years ago
Gill and I found a
chongalorlor
lying on a turd
in Monzali’s old garden
now become a B&B.
You might ask
“What is a chongalorlor?”
It is a black shiny eight inch centipede
totally harmless
that curls up when threatened.
I was pleased to see one
taken back to our Lusaka childhood.
And here we were
fifty years later
In Umtentweni
walking down to the roaring surf
through the gated subtropical garden
to the beach
past Aunty Ella’s pool
to the now sharkproofed surf
for our morning swim.
We walk, not run any more,
as we are now old women
not teenagers
hard as it is to believe
until we put on our glasses to look in a mirror.
If we had been running,
with no glasses
we might have missed
my sweet
chongolorlor.
