if I look up I see blue sky.

'And all of these moments just might find their way into my dreams tonight' - Jack Johnson, Better Together

Today if I look up I see blue sky. If I ignore the buildings and look at the sky, with its pillowy clouds I can imagine I'm in Africa. If I replace the brown of the buildings and the tall poplars with the mauve of the hills and msasa trees, I could be at home.

If I close my eyes I can smell the rain hitting dusty earth, rippling its sweet scent through my body. Sudden raindrops falling while the sun still shines. Thunderclouds towering into the sky and the desire to offer myself naked to the rain.

I can see the dust of winter, and the cold clear mornings. The blue sky stretching endlessly above and the ground covered with a thin layer of crackling frost. The sunlight, warming the earth as the day grows, the earth abruptly turning cold as the sun sets.

The smells of maize meal cooking over an open fire, air thick with smoke, the scents of animals and people intermingled. The smell of dust and shit and life.

I can see Africa, pious and pagan.

When I open them I can see blue sky again.