From noisy customs den,
Where seamy corruption clings leachlike
To suck away the wealth of Western victims
Transcend to peaceful paradise . . .

Smiling voices in the dark with shrimps and crabs to sell
Join a dawn chorus of deafening toads and rattling crickets,
Which sound their reveillé to serenade our Star beer stroll
To Joe’s office, in search of early morning fare.

A wayward moped rolls its zig zag course towards us
And passes on its way as night’s eyelids lift
To welcome misty dawn along the ferry road.

Dayspring pilgrims dressed in peacock robes
Line our dawnlit way through Eden.
Statuesque figures engraved in ebony erect
Stand watching . . . proud and silent . . .
Immersed in strange and mystic dreams.