We travelled north
through the mountains
through the town of São Vicente
—lush evergreen laurel forest
on either side of the road
the deep emerald vegetation
obscuring the rough terrain shaped
by volcanoes long extinct
That day the sun shone
and the air felt cool and fresh
as we climbed into the hills
and here and there we saw
tall torrents of mineral water
cascading perpendicularly
into streams that churned
in beds lined with pumice
And arriving at the shore in Seixal
with its tall rugged cliffs
where these thin rivulets plunged
abruptly over the edge
into the aimless sea I thought
of time and love and light and
all things that at the end of the day
spread out into nothing
John Lyons