On My First Visit To Victoria Falls

The smoke that thunders, they say you are
And when I first saw you from a distance quite far
The tales I’d been told and the stories I had heard
Seemed to match this wonderful sight, word for word.

But, such is the wonder of natural beauty
That no second-hand tale can fulfill its duty
Of portraying the wonder, the respect and awe
That within me, welled, when first I saw

Your curtain of water cascading with such force and power
That one could only admire the spray and revel in its shower
As the trees around sparkled with droplets of perpetual dew
That reflected a sunny sky so full of blue

Not content enough with your brilliance alone
You decide to paint a canvas as beautiful as your own
For that double rainbow, with its sparkling spectrum of light
Is indeed a most majestic and radiant sight

That can move one to such emotions that accompany boyish wonder
When on the Knife-Edge bridge, one can feel your mighty thunder
As pellets of rain unceasingly and perpetually sting
Regardless of whether it is summer, winter, autumn or spring.

Yes, you are a marvellous tribute to the poetry of the earth
Of its immense bounty, its rhythm, its theme and its worth
A song whose melodies will never cease to be
A splendid canvas on which one will always see

The genius of a master, a poet, an artist, a conductor all rolled in one
You, the smoke that thunders under the scorching Zambian sun.