I suddenly remember

from an old NCC camp

while in school

blazing under

the afternoon sun

in Kelve near the sea

and the water was so beautiful

so transparent so pure

and the soft white sand

we walked on

chatting in the evening

and then there was

this thicket of trees

beyond the beach

as far as the eye could see

and it was so mesmerising

in its beauty

I think now

that was paradise

we were strolling through 

watching the sunset

and the place belonged

to the Navy

and we were supposed

to relieve ourselves

in the open

which many of us couldn’t

for seven days

and it was late December

and after a tiring day of

exercise and parades

it was Christmas eve

and I was so drowsy

and often asleep

travelling in this Navy truck

with other Christian cadets

to a church to attend midnight mass

I remember the golden light

from the bulb

in the wooden church

I remember my classmate Floyd

and other nights in the hall

where we slept and how before that

we sang bawdy songs raucously

in our breaking adolescent voices

that rang under the deep blue sky

and its multitude of twinkling stars.