Let us gaze over the plastic thin sea
becalming our hearts of mahogany.
Drifting like a bulldozer on snow,
we rise to the gull’s drop of purple mussels.

Let us wake no one while we scout
the salty driftwood for treasure,
to lift the boredom of inactivity,
Surprised by patterns left by waves on old virgin sand.

Let us sing hymns to the atoms of reason that will not
be split by the pink palmed president on his supporter’s stand.
so we can safely sail on clear deep water where little mermaids wait

Let us sleep sheltered like yesterday’s play-wasted children
expecting the kept promise of the ice-cream man’s bell
waking in the light of birth to live forever in rickety sonnets.

Pedro Vorster is a Namibian poet, visual artist, and member of the Windhoek Writers Club. He has worked in the telecommunications, publishing, and civil service fields. His satirical essays were published in a collection called Headfull by Macmillan in 2012. Perdo has won numerous prizes for his photography and painting and has works in the Namibian National Art Gallery’s permanent collection as well as other galleries in Scotland, Germany, and the World Bank, in Washington.