Prized for perfumes and medicines,
  Rainbow personified & God's messenger,
  Resting the souls of dead women,
  Decorum of the graves,
  Delight of the ancient artists.
   
  Blooming on Minoan Walls,
  Sculptured in stone at Karnak.
  Living memories of the French revolution.
  Clovis put you on his banner
  And won over Germanic tribe.
  Louis VII adopted you as device,
  Fleur-de-lis the symbol of France.
  Germany suspended you in beer barrels,
  And France to enrich the wine,
  England to give flavour to brandies,
  And Russia flavoured a soft drink.
   
  Then, plucked in a state of chastity,
  Now, relegated to flavour toothpaste.

FROM ST. SIMONS ISLAND

 
  I listen on the beach to the waves cascading,
  Slapping, tossing the sand pebbles,
  Creating swishing, swashing sounds,
  I hear hissing, rustling sounds of the wind.
   
  I see some gliding fishing boats there,
  The seagulls soaring, gliding in the air here,
  On the horizon floating ships still further,
  Surfers trying to get rides on the waves here.
   
  I watch people running strolling and sunning,
  The sun is about to set on the horizon,
  With a promise to rise anew tomorrow,
  Like the human ambitions and desires.
   
  I notice the crabs scurry to hide somewhere,
  The scooping pelicans with mouthful of fish,
  Water receding leaving the smooth bed of sand,
  All sounds now receding to its minimum.
   
  Come, Grace, getting away from the turmoils,
  Is it not the time for us to be in tranquility?