Have you been to Khartoum? The Black and White Island?

 

Have you been to Khartoum? The Black and White Island?

Where memory, myth, and prayer merges into a haunting meditation on loss and regret?

As once intimate and cosmic events, turns isolation into a path toward repentance and the possibility of transcendence?

Title.

Khartoum.

The Black and White Island.

(A lone voice whispers)

As I lay here, under my apple tree

With my head on my pillow

Looking at my only treasure

A white feather by the sea

I can still remember the first time, The Ebb, and Flow came looking for me

And I witnessed all those old things once hidden, 

when my eyes couldn't see

When it engulfed me in its fine mists, of secret memories 

The mysteries 

Insecurities 

Jealousy 

Lies 

And all other forgotten things

That Ebb and Flow from beyond the Great Sea,

Brought to me

Forgotten moments

Missed chances

Last dances

And the loneliness of standing in a dark circle, of never-ending silence

Gripped knee-deep in the black sludge of the Highlands

And now alone on this island, in the middle of a black sea

With only a white pillow 

White feather and an apple tree, for company 

I still see her

Skin as soft and white as snow

Dressed in blue Levi jeans

White tee

And black high heels

Blue sharp eyes

Beautiful and blonde like a young smiling Marilyn Monroe

Resurrected by the swirling grey mists of the Ebb and Flow

Which touches all things and binds to the spine

The past

Present and future

For they are the Pole stars of all good and evil

The collector and receiver of all things made of matter on Earth

By making the forsaken see all those hidden missed moments and mistakes

Like when I let that girl ride on her horse called Wildfire 

Right out of my paddocks gates

When my heart took shell fire from Desire's Gatling gun

Is that why I'm stuck on this lonely island in the middle of this Black Sea

Sentenced to lay underneath this great apple tree 

Inscribed with the many etched in names of past visitors 

With a white pillow and white feather for company 

So Lord,

Until I find the Repentance candle, to climb higher out of this darkness

Haunted each night

By the Ebb and Flow 

About the girl with blonde hair 

Who looked like a young smiling, Marilyn Monroe 

Wearing blue Levi's and a white tee

On a horse called Wildfire

Who I once let go

Oh, Lord, Please forgive me

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Image shared under fair usage policy.