Companion

Screaming rage, the old pachyderm charges hard

Scattering predators away from the ravaged corpse of her fallen friend

The carnivorous stork and vulture cloud simultaneously take startled flight & retreat raggedly to the nearest dead tree, there to turn and glare with accusing eyes and cawing clamour. The hyenas and jackals scatter from the stinking cavernous maw of abdomen and scramble for the cover of thorn bush perimeter. Their hideous cackle and yapping adding to the cocophany of the noisy horror in this small, dry and dusty African drama.

Wheeling about the old cow surveys the clearing and, satisfied she has seen the vile things off, turns back to her fallen friend, shuffling through the thick white dust, she stands close by protecting.

Unfurling her massive trunk, she gently wraps it's sensitive tip around the scarred tusk of her fallen companion...and standing there, In a long, long sentinel silence...she remembers.......

 

 

Standing flank to flank in waters

Cooling spray upon the hide,

Trunks entwined to rumbled chortle

Bull and cow and calf abide.

Striding through the Serengetti

Grasses tall and sweet and green,

Grazing in this luscious plenty

Happiness in joy unseen.

 

New born calf cavorts, unsteady

Laughing at her rubber legs,

Keep a watch for lion menace

Always lurking for the dregs.

Cow to cow companionship

Builds the basis of the herd,

One reliant on the other

Cuddly calf to bull absurd.

 

Sunset on the far horizon

Golden glow across the plain,

Trekking for the waterhole

Through acacia tree domain.

Zebra throng with wilderbeast,

Quail and guinea fowl

Run through grasses long and brown

Though leopard on the prowl.

 

Fun time with marula berries

Dropping from the trees like rain,

Staggering drunk pachyderms

Fall about but feel no pain.

Violence in defensiveness

Circled by enormous rage

Calves protected safe within

Roaring lioness engaged.

 

Quiet of the evening air

A stillness in the herd

Affection in companionship

'Twixt leather hide does gird.

Companions together

Tho cumbersome and sage,

Companions endureth

Through an elephant old age.

 

Kilamanjaro crowned with snow

Though plains are cracked and dry,

Prolonged drought has taken toll

And many creatures die.

Trekking from dry waterhole

A million dusty miles

To find the next hard caked with salt

Enough to make you cry.

 

And when the cloud of death descends

A pachyderm must cry

For the memory of companion

Doth bring sadness to the eye.

Remembering the sister ship

Remembering the pain

Remembering shared elephant-ness

Brings good recall back again.

 

So, as time relents, a parting made

And memories do burn,,

The taste of Africa prevails

As lurking predators return.

 

Marshalg

There's a world of meaning in the picture.

22 July 2012

 

 

 

Reviews

[Marie]

There's a world of meaning in the picture and also in the poem. Elephants do remember...