Crazy in the morning
Spirited in the afternoon
Calm at sunset
Sleepy by night
As the window changes scenery
Her mind changes moods
Beaches to hills to wildlife
Her mind is rough, sunny, hot
Then cool, chilly, frozen
And then it pours!
She goes upstream, then downstream
With the current, against the current
Drifting, drowning
Ebbing, receding
The high tides of her mind are dangerous
She dresses, undresses, over dresses
And then she walks in her night gown
Slow like the elephants of Pinnawale elephant orphanage
Helpless like the albino turtle of Kosgoda turtle hatchery
Mischievous like the squirrel that loves fries in Mirissa beach
Indomitable like the blue whales of Mirissa; blowing air
She needs to come to the surface to breathe just like those whales
She is deep like the oceans of Hikkaduwa
Violent like the waves of Kogolla
And then blue like the beaches of Bentota
Smashing like the mighty Devon waterfalls
Transient like the tea leaves of Nuwara Eliya;
Morose like the noise of the car engine on the south Srilankan highway
Blushing pink like the magnificent sunset
Stubborn as the rock of Sigiriya
Calm as the Buddha statues in every street corner
High maintenance like the precious gem stones
Old world and arty like Galle's dutch lanes
Attention-seeking like the cat in Negombo
She is Sri Lanka
Lanka is a mirror
Sri Lanka is a million emotions that converge
Like a tear drop in the Indian Ocean
