Africa scent

i want so badly to settle into that Africa smell tonight
like i did snuggled down into that old, slightly dirty leather truck seat,
sliding around in this dusty jean jacket
but i washed all my clothes and that smell is gone from all this fabric
even the jacket i bought there seems American
except for the small round giraffe-print emblem in the right-hand corner near the collar
and then i find myself identifying with Africa as the rest of the unaware populace--
a place of lions and zebras and elephants and lots and lots of...Africans
and not as the place with a face of friendship turned towards me
like the sun when it throws out its arms and soars upwards over sloping hills,
outlining and illuminating trees, tiny miniatures on the horizon,
to settle into its sky-seat for the day
i want to remember the feeling of welcome
the way laughter sounds
the way African winter feels on my skin when i'm huddled up and grumpy
but enjoying the crisp tingling secretly
i want to remember the touch of Africa, when it reaches out to grab you
abruptly
demanding you to emerge and be reborn under the sprayed reach
of the thorn trees