Posted in Poetry, Travel, Travel Writing, tagged Borneo, Gunung Mulu National Park, leeches, Malaysia, Poetry, Sarawak, The Pinnacles, Travel, trekking, walking on 26/10/2011| 1 Comment »
26. Malaysia (The Pinnacles, Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak)
Four days jungle walking
(raining).
I creep out at night for a pee,
crouching over the steaming leaf mould
(it’s raining).
A hundred scrawny, starving leeches
LEAP to attention,
their infrared sensors focussed single-mindedly on my warm bum
(still raining).
The race is on: first to the finish line wins!
jpm
Posted in Poetry, Travel, Travel Writing, tagged aid work, developing countries, health clinics, Kenya, Kibera, Marie Stopes, mother and child health, Nairobi, slums, Travel, Travel writing on 19/10/2011| Leave a Comment »
25. Kenya (Nairobi, 2000)
A city of one million.
Most in full-time employment.
Commuters, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers.
Laughter beside corrugated iron shanties:
children playing games in dirt alleys.
A neat blue clinic nurtures modest dreams
amidst the stench and grime.
Health for all.
The Nubian-named ‘forest’ of Kibera:
Biggest slum in Africa.
jpm
Dedicated to the MSI Kenya mini-clinic team of Kibera.
Posted in Poetry, Travel, Travel Writing, tagged Agra, backpacking, childbirth, India, maternal exhaustion, maternal health, maternal mortality, Mutaz Mahal, Poetry, Shah Jahan, Taj Mahal, Travel writing on 12/10/2011| 3 Comments »
24. India (The Taj Mahal)
Blinding heat ricocheting off the pristine marble of the Taj.
My bare feet dance across the white-hot path as if walking across coals.
Devastated to learn that the fabled love of a man for a woman
which built this great edifice, resulted in her death:
Fourteen children in fifteen years.
jpm
Posted in Poetry, Travel Writing, tagged Badaling, Badaling Expressway, Beijing, China, first steps, hawkers, parents, the Great Wall, The Great Wall of China on 05/10/2011| 5 Comments »
23. China (The Great Wall)
A sweaty, claustrophobic ascent in the cable car after
continuous traffic jams from Beijing to Badaling.
A cacophony of hawkers: it’s all noise and crowds.
Until – my tiny daughter takes her very first steps
(on the Great Wall itself!),
and all of us – hawkers, tourists, guides –
become one universal parent.
jpm
50 words for 50 countries 