Lake Tanganyika: Regret Poem by Natalie Dumont de Chassart

Amber Msasas witnessed how, in their dappled light
A young man shook hands with the world and money
- and Lake Tanganyika cried
for that boy, who she had raised,
And the deal he had made
Which would stamp out kindness
Like a cigarette on an amber ashtray
"Don't lose sight of Love, Love", I heard her pray

Somnambulant cities stared, as a hard leader
Auctioned old friends on new floors
And betrayed love behind cracked doors
Far away from the Lake and the Mulanje cedar
- and the fish Eagle cried
For that boy, who she had sung to,
And the militant man he had come to
For the somnambulist soul she wished she could run to,
While stumps smoked away, on a cracked ashtray
"Don't lose sight of Love, Love", I heard her pray

Nurses in blue witnessed how, in the hospital glow
A grey man with silver glitter on his brow
Even in pain resisted death
-and the boy he'd once been cried
At the fear that overcame him
when he knew that death would take him.
The only voices in his head -
Were the Fish eagle and Mulanje cedar,
Msasas and Lake Tanganyika
And what they'd said
As embers died away, on a broken ashtray
"Don't lose sight of Love, Love", I heard him say