The Safari

Such beasts and birds!
One glimpse alone atones for
wretched flesh wrenched free from bone.
The broken shards of feasting orgies;
But these remain, together with the spit
and spew of scavengers...
All creatures’ cries are lost beneath
the canopy of bush and baobab tree.
(Invisible life to you and I)

We journey on, step by small step
Through barely whispered echoes,
all pulsing beats and windswept song.
But there, beyond the shadows, celebration!
The power and the grace;
the Pride, the first of five.
Oh, how we gaze! Absorb our fill.
Our craning necks, our hands held still;
We linger for the show’s demise
applauded by the sunrise in our eyes.

Then, homeward bound, we share our precious tales,
Of manes and kingdoms and boundless joy untold.

© Andrianne Philippou
18th May 2017