I lean and watch them speak,
in tongues, royal purple tongues,
twirling in full heart-shaped mouths:
mouths with curved-in lips,
some greener than others, serving
smooth words on velvet goblets:
goblets with five handles to hold
and drink life rife with status, like
queens and kings of ancient East Africa.
East Africa, was it home or roam?
Some cousins made it abroad, living
grandly on window sills, not forests.
Forests in moist gowns and emerald crowns,
roots speaking in monarch’s tongues, daring
I bow to the royal purple beneath.
Beneath, where life is rife with status,
my heart adores neither blue nor violet—
to praise is to daze.
Poem by Gloria Gonsalves
Gloria is a prolific author of children’s stories inspired mostly by nature. She is also a multi-published poet. Her writing has appeared in various literary magazines and journals in Africa, Europe, and the USA including featured five times by the National/Global Poetry Writing Month (Na/GloPoWriMo).