Thursday, February 23, 2023

Chapbook

 

Sweet Baraka

 

When our tour guide told us

we’d pet a black rhino,

I thought she was joking.

 

You don’t pet

huge aggressive rhinos

with big, long horns.

 

But Baraka,

a kindly gentleman rhino

lives at Old Pejeta conservancy.

 

Blind in both eyes,

one lost in a fight

the other to cataracts.

 

He greets visitors gladly,

especially when they give him

some plants to munch.

 

In Swahili, Baraka means “blessings.”

I don’t know if he feels blessed,

blind and away from other rhinos.

 

But being allowed to pat him on the head

and scratch behind his ears,

I felt truly blessed.

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