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Nepal Namaste

 

Namaste, we're home again

From Nepal sun, no drop of rain

Seen snow-capped mountains pink with dawn

Walked terraced hillsides green with corn

Met bright-eyed children off to school

Watched peaks appear in mirrored pool

Rushed through rapids, drifted slow

On rivers fed by melting snow

Stepped through clouds of butterflies

Sat round fires 'neath jungle skies

Heard the call of laughing thrush

Rise above the waters rush

Spotted birds of every hue

Rosy-rumped, electric blue

Entered homes of smoke-filled gloom

Where palm prints decorate each room

Watched buffaloes and men make hay

Seen water fetched at close of day

Heard little voices call Bye, bye

While black kites wheel across the sky

Rode elephants down forest tracks

Trailing deer from sturdy backs

Crossed sandbanks watched by crocodiles

Seen rhino calves and Tharu smiles

Had bed tea 'fore the sun could rise

Looked chattering monkeys in the eyes

Traced pawprints on a river beach

Where territories of tigers reach

Watched bright kingfishers dive to dine

And shadowed antelope in line

Forded streams on howdah top

Made golden jackals turn and stop

Seen ranks of herons line a bank

Where fish abound in waters dank

Met the gaze of eagle owl

Spied oriole and jungle fowl

Touched tropic flowers large as plates

Passed palaces of potentates

Watched pilgrims kneel and prayer wheels turn

Seen towering tree and slender fern

Flown along an ice-clad range

Tasted food and drink most strange

We've whistled-stopped, a lightning tour

And still it leaves me wanting more.

 

                                                                                                 Nepal, 2000

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