Gail Chandler

Malawi

The warm heart of Africa �
I first heard those words
at midnight on the unlighted lawn
of the Zambezi Sun.

I was standing
in the dark smoking
when a small dusky man
arrived beside me
smelling of wood fires
and grief.

We talked of
Appalachian mountains
and Malawi hills.
Then he faded
into the shadows

— E. Gail Chandler, from Where the Red Road Meets the Sky (Finishing Line, 2009).
Reprinted by permission of the author.

E. Gail Chandler�s poems and short stories have appeared in Appalachian Heritage, Limestone, Back Home in Kentucky, Kudzu, Pegasus and the anthologies, Standing on the Mountain: Voices of Appalachia and Motif. Her nonfiction book, Sunflowers on Market Street, was published in 2003 and a chapbook of poetry, Where the Red Road Meets the Sky, is pending publication by Finishing Line Press. Chandler has degrees from Berea College in Kentucky and The New School in New York City and served three years in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam era.

Proceeds from the sale of Gail’s Finishing Line chapbook go to support Vihiga Children’s Home in western Kenya. Gail says:

The money will be used to pay teachers at the school on the facility grounds. The children, [shown in the photo below] mostly AIDS orphans, at this school, Edith Junior,scored the highest in the district although the teachers receive the lowest salaries — averaging about $50 per month. Currently the school is not funded and limps along from month to month based on what I can raise.

So buy a copy of Gail’s book. You get good poetry and help these Kenyan teachers and children.