There,
Where setting sun
Paints trees and grass in gold and green;
There,
Where skies are high and big
And dapple the rolling hills with purple shadow;
Where elephant walks tall on cushioned feet
And kudu stand proud –
Curling horns reaching for the sky;
Where black-faced vervets
Dance in the trees,
And baboons bark and impala skip;
There,
Where owl glides,
Silent in the moonlight,
Or sits on skeletal tree,
Surveying all in mysterious monochrome;
Where rocks are rhinos
And giraffe hide, tall and gangly,
Behind feathery-leafed trees;
Where wind whips up waves
On the grass-covered plains,
And warthog strut and grovel and turn and run –
Antennae-tails high;
Where lion cough and roar
And leopard slinks, graceful,
unseen;
Where cheetah glides into whirlwind chase
And lands on kudu’s back –
Or stirs up dust-storms of wildebeest –
Then chirrups to her cubs
Who chirp back,
Sounding,
for all the world,
like tiny birds;
There,
Where the air is bright
And the bushveld gives off scents
Of herbs and musth…
There, the heart soars free
With eagles and darting-blue kingfisher;
There, heart and soul
Truly find peace.
© Isabel Bradley, 2017
