After monsoon rains
When wind shivers
Grass taller than my head undulates like snakes
Waves invitingly to travellers
To step into its boomslang-greenness

Be wary.
To step into high grass is to be enveloped
In itching seeds
Trip over roots
Become soaked.
If near a village to be covered in fleas.

Grass can become an enemy
Camouflage predators.
Around African huts it is cleared well-away
Hard red earth is a firebreak
Revealing reptiles.

And yet soft temptation drags us in.
Food for our donkeys
Comfortable, we think.
Until covered in grass seeds
Knocked stupid from stumbles
Faced with thickets
We begin to hack.

---

George Tardios was born in London of Greek Cypriot parentage. Poems in six ‘PEN/Arts Council anthologies’ published by Hutchinson and several other publications. Two collections of poems BullSong and Buttoned-Up Shapes. Director of Totleigh Barton, the Arvon Foundation’s first residential creative writing centre in Devon. ‘Poets in Schools’ scheme and tutored creative writing courses for Arvon Foundation. Organised the first ‘National Poetry Competition’ for the Poetry Society/BBC TV at Earl’s Court and for Arvon Foundation/Observer. Judged television’s BBC2 ‘South Bank Show’ Poetry Competition. Led an expedition in Tanzania retracing, on foot, H.M. Stanley’s 1871 journey in his search for Dr David Livingstone. The trek took two years and twelve days to complete. George Tardios has written an account of the journey, Lay down your heart.