One Hundred Oysters

To Francis

One hundred oysters
to feast on an event in Life
that made me feel at times
a prisoner of life.

One hundred oysters
to feast on that moment
on a hill in Africa
when we thought
that an epic thing happened.

One hundred oysters
to remember our time
walking in a jungle
and coming upon Gorillas
too fast, too easy
for me to build
out of it
an adventurous story.

One hundred oysters
for our dream like time
a short distance South of the Equator
on the lac Kivu
feasting on Love delights
in a convent
where nuns busily paced
in the hallways.



And the time
contemplating zebras
while tasting with fingers
delicious fleshy tilapias.

Then as now
we were eager for Life
intoxicated with love
with a ravenous appetite for all
including hundreds of oysters.

We went on
celebrated life together
and the beginning of Time with our children
taking them with us to the feast of the world
in which we were lucky guests.

One hundred oysters
whose rough irregular shell
hides the delicious edible part
in the brine of sea water
just like the rough side of Life
fashioned after the shell of those mollusks
hided
the delicious, heavenly, edible part
of our love in the brine of life.

Flora