Day Five arrives and what do we find?  Today’s challenging invitation is to write about nature.  Not just any nature but a slice of nature that is our very own and known to us in detail.

Okay, so the handful here who know me, know nature is the enmeshed with the fabric of my soul.  So much so, that this year’s events with my two princesses include a park every day of visitation that it isn’t raining or snowed over or too cold.  It also includes a family membership in an art museum (the IMA) that is as equally renown for it’s landscaped gardens as for its galleries.  Also, to help the development of their inquisition into things natural and naturally wonderful and wondrous, we have obtained an annual family pass to the local Indianapolis Zoo and White River Gardens.

Madagascar
by Michael Romani

Yesterday, at the zoo
You looked at me 
And I looked at you
Daddy, what is this tree?
Darlings, it's from Madagascar
Is that very far?

It's a million miles away
But as close as your heart
Maybe we'll go some day
Tasting fruits sweet and tart
Watching out over lemur trees
Enjoying the Indian Ocean breeze

Holding you close, do you wanna
Someday visit muddy ole Gondwana
Its remnant kept in isolation
Might be the perfect destination
For three hearts such as ours
Eating savory fritters under the stars

Dusty roads leading nowhere
Close your eyes and you are there
To this land of distinctive ecology
This eighth continent of bio-diversity
Chateau dreams of fossa and lemurs
Remembrance of baobab and orchid streamers

Pungent cardamom spice is the stuff of legend
Curing what ails you both real and imagined
Periwinkle gives herbal remedy for affliction
With more medicines to come as sound prediction
Oh, my loves, I hope one day to travel with you
If I can before it's time to pay my dues

But, if not, we can dance away from death
In the days that your daddy has left
And dream as we swirl closing our eyes
Making each day a new beautiful sunrise
Even if one day all you have left is remembrance
Of these wondrous moments of irrational exuberance

Standing there so close together as family
Knowing and feeling the traces left of me
That will deeply touch your souls forever 
All these plans made when we might be together
Are plans of a dreamer who loves his girls
Like Madagascar, always forever, my world

(c) April 5, 2017 Michael Romani