Poem Island of Love

The prosaic signpost mutters the name
of an island discovered centuries ago.
A flicker of hope runs through
two explorers’ hearts.

The humble red car swerves off the road,
onto a winding, slender track,
then into a neat, brick-paved trail
that betrays no sign of voodoo.

It meanders through barren land,
past a knot of lazy, unflappable villagers
whose laid-back stillness
betrays no hint of voodoo.

Further on—
the eerie calm of a summer afternoon,
swathes of mangroves rising in wilderness
to greet the explorers,
still offering no sign of voodoo.

The silence of the forsaken land
stirs something primordial within them.
Oh, to make out here—wildly—
in this human-forsaken expanse, unseen,
in dirt and swamp on a blazing day,
tempered only by mangrove green.

They lust. They laugh—
laughing to outwit the lust,
clever products of civilisation.
They halt. They abandon the red contraption
where civilisation perhaps ends.

Further down the dirt track,
a burst of silver light beckons.
They part a canopy of foliage—
still no sign of voodoo.

They walk gingerly, expectantly,
into a sandy bed of silvery shoreline
hidden from habitation.

On the beach, a docile, aging cow
with melancholy eyes sits huddled—
like God’s retired carrier.

And then, suddenly, everything turns voodoo. 

A voodoo beach unfolds as a steady wind
sets the land in motion—
white sand flowing endlessly
like heaven’s conveyor belt.

The explorers fall under the spell
as God’s own beach casts its quiet charm.

The sun mellows,
the moving shoreline turning
into a palette of blue, grey, gold, and silver.
They wade through living sand
into foamy waves that break
without fury.

They are under voodoo now.

The younger marvels,
clearly surrendered to nature’s design.
The elder savours the sight—
and the wonder in his companion’s eyes,
bragging inwardly
at the unexpected gift he has given.

They look at each other—
spellbound, unmoored.
Lust gives way to love.
Awestruck, they close in,
hold hands, wrap each other in arms,
and kiss.

The sky stands mute witness
to locked lips and clasped hands—
two hungry souls
finding refuge in nature’s open hideout.

Frozen in the moment,
the befuddled explorers turn back,
walking slowly through the sand,
leaving behind the quiet chronicle
of a love story never foretold.

Clueless, they tell each other:
This is our secret.