Map Addiction
Map obsessed since I was four.
Explorer aged five
Map, compass, plastic mac,
Leading the others down the road
Through The Dingle,
Up the road, through the desert,
Round the corner to The Quarry
Where it was safe
In the 60s.
Madrid - Cordoba takes all day,
Granada - Seville 3 hours,
Calais - Paris 4,
I could become a bore
If you let me.
Beijing to Xian, up at 5
Arrive midday.
Jaipur to Delhi - evening train
Group instructed "Surplus food
To be re-distributed to people on platforms."
"Untouchable children to be hugged,"
As per instructions from Gandhi.
Guayaquil to The Galapagos
3 days by cargo boat,
Upper bunk,
26 Ecuadorian sailors,
3 weeks between the islands,
Swimming through silken sea
Alfredo
Dying cattle in the hold
Paradise Lost.
Deep hammock nights
Cargo-boating down the Amazon,
Shock dawn awakenings
Colombian soldiers
Yelling accusations down the barrel of a gun
"Gringas, why are you here?".
Buenos Aires
Tangoing down to Patagonia
Where in my wildest dreams
They were speaking Welsh,
Penguins playing in pools of sheer joy.
Flying back to Blighty
Would take 10 lifetimes, maybe more ....
Why bother?
When Lhasa to Shangri-La
Takes 10 days on foot.
Flight of the dragonfly 