because Axum flows into Meroe
the Blue Nile into the White at Khartoum
those rivers together make a sea
unless poisoned by yellow simoons
infecting air and water with their dust -
the earth’s a torus turning inside out
a puncture a whorl of shell a mollusc
as the hole closes again about
Sudan - the world could pour into this spot
through the Silk Road into Africa -
the swifts dip for drinks before they slot
back into their flocks - then those traffickers
of continents commute the longtitudes
invert the seasons and turn latitudes
Oxford
10 August 2018