new year's eve

People already have plans! Where did ths year GO??

To my shock, I'll be exactly where I was last new year's eve - here in Nairobi. When's the last time I was in Kenya for 2 New Years in succession? Before I left for college, that's when.

Last New Year's Eve, my friend M and I decided at midnight, totally on the spur-of-the-moment, to drive to Lake Naivasha, in the Rift Valley, to watch the sun rise. We left Nairobi as fireworks exploded over the sky in Westlands. By 2am, we were at the Escarpment, looking out over the Great Rift Valley, under an immensity of silent stars. At 4am, we rolled into Naivasha town, wove through drunken revellers staggering the streets, parked under a street lamp and napped for an hour.

At 5.30am, we were on the lakeshore, by the embers of a dying fire, waiting for the sky to lighten.

It was crazy, whimsical, potentially dangerous (the Naivasha road is notorious for carjackings, and driving it late at night is high risk) - and utterly magical. It's going to be hard to top that this year.

SONG FOR 6AM, JANUARY 1, 2007

she slipped back into my body today
the one I left beneath acacia trees
bathed in pale gold Naivasha sunrise

she walked out of swathes
of lakeside grass
legs soaked to the knees
chimeras of buffalo, hippo
trailed behind

a long blue sock
heel scorched and charred
dangled off her finger

her arms were full
of branches
gilded, dazzling
they scattered
liquid birdcalls
dripped translucent sunlight

her black fleece jacket
a palimpsest
of 4am revelry on Naivasha streets
3am Route 67
petrol station grunge
fireworks over Westlands
parking lots

I knew when she opened her mouth
it would sing an infinity
of black champagne sky
fizzing stars
over the Rift Valley
a sound you could dive off
swim through
comet among comets

I said:
You were meant to stay.
Under the trees at dawn.
So I would know
you were always there.

She said:
I was meant to return.
Arms filled
with the trees at dawn.
Mouth singing
Escarpment sky.
Precisely so
you would know
you are always there.