I had a friend who loved the stars - for Jeanne

I had a friend who loved the stars

In the early days she flew over the African landscape in planes that always landed,

but only the light touch of the pilots fingers and God kept them in the air.

Once she showed me a picture she took looking into Kilimanjaro,

The gaping throat of the African earth reaching for their tiny craft

as they raced the dusk to make an emergency landing in fields

lit by the headlights of the farmers trucks,

the villagers watching spellbound as the plane sputtered out of the sky.

I had a friend who loved the stars

So much that she trained as a tail gunner's spotter in world war two

Even the knowledge that she would surely die

Seemed insignificant when measured against embracing Indra's net.

But she sailed the seas where the stars were echoed in the waves,

bringing stolen women home from their horrific sacrifice.

I had a friend who loved the stars

and watched each night over the water as the tiny lights of far distant aircraft

sparkled like tiny jewels in the still waters of the vlei in front of her home

lights singing to her of places she had never seen, but longed for.

I had a friend who loved the stars

and like the stars her radiance and sparkle kindled love in all who met her.

She would smile from the heart and tell

Stories of an Africa that has has long since been eclipsed

by dark shadows and where death and cruelty stalk the night

and violence sheds the blood of day.

I had a friend who loved the stars

And while I looked away death came and took her to himself

But I'm sure that in the night sky as the stars slide into the dawn

I can catch the echo of her spirit she dances

around the moon, at one with her kind at last.