Permanence

The Kings of Africa have lost their crowns
to baseball caps they wear the wrong way round
and Coca Cola stalls and cars abound
but though there's high rise buildings in the towns

the country is still very much the same
with huts, dry bush and bitter lack of rain
and from the slow but sure Mombassa train
you see the giant billboard adds that claim

cold Tusker's just the thing fall slowly back
for termite hills and deer beneath the vast
expanse of sky, an eagle winging past
and always people walking down the track.