The Mathematics of Home (after a long hike and 2 hours on some South African roads)

A poem I wrote some years back. It was published in the South African weekly The Mail & Guardian but they changed it a bit, in ways I didn't really appreciate. Space considerations and all that, you know...
It's in my book, No One to Blame.

 

The Mathematics of Home (after a long hike and 2 hours on some South African roads)

(46 blinding highbeams, perverse to anyone sharing the road

37 pedestrians in dark clothing, often three abreast and oblivious

7 tailgaters, dying to pass by, cranking it up and flying over the pass

6 slow moving vehicles, too afraid to be on the road in the first place

5 potholes, popping up like poltergeist even though the sign warned us

2 goats,

1 donkey, and

1 cow, out for a stroll and as stupid as shit, and

1 bicycle rider, tooling along the tarmac, much rarer than in Tanzania)

+

(7 big beers
1 hot shower
1 bowl of chicken stirfry
1 spliff
     and a damn good lightning storm)

=

0 problems.