animal Poetic Blooming

 

The Rothschild giraffe

Snatches a pellet from my fingers

With its long gray tongue

How to Blank old prompt

 

How to Take a Great Selfie

 

Hold up camera in one hand.

With the other, hold a food pellet

between finger and thumb.

Let Rothschild giraffe

put its huge head over your shoulder

and snatch the pellet with its long gray tongue.

Snap the selfie.

If that fails, have the tour guide take it.

Animal Poetic Bloomings

 

Rothschild Giraffes of Kenya

 

Beautiful Rothschild Giraffes

deserve their rock-star status

at the Giraffe Centre.

 

Brown and cream patched coat,

white socks

and very long gray tongue.

 

They develop a rhythm

of scooping up food pellets with their tongue

from one tourist to the next and back.

 

Hold a pellet up for a selfie

as it places its giant head

over your shoulder to snatch a snack.

 

Snacks don’t spoil their meals, though.

They eat 145 pounds of acacia leaves a day

to keep their very tall bodies going.

 

Beautiful, beautiful animals.

Future PAD 12-3

 

The future           

Filled with surprises

Maybe not

It will come

Yes, here, there or in the air

What will future hold?

Future PAD 12-2

 

First Day in Nairobi

 

Streets and underpasses,

(with few traffic lights)

filled with people selling odds

an ends flowers, fruit, veggies,

toys, pictures, just about anything,

mini cars and motorcycles zipping by,

tall trellises replacing foliage loss

from highways and bridges.

 

At our hotel, taking a nap

after a thirteen-hour flight,

letting family know we made it,

meeting people from our tour group,

eating a delicious dinner,

figuring out the voltage converter and adaptors.

I don’t have to be a prophet to know

that these nine days will go by fast.

Future PAD 12-1

 

In the Near Future

 

In the near future (do not laugh)

I may be kissing a giraffe                         

Or, at least, I may cuddle one

There’s many ways of having fun

 

In the near future, here’s the plan

See a museum, if we can

Out of Africa’s Karen Blixen

There’s many ways of having fun

 

In the near future, here’s the plan

We’ll buy some art that’s African

Or taste a sweet African bun

There’s many ways of having fun

scary PAD 11-3

 Writing a Scary Poem

 

It’s hard to write a scary poem

while I’m trying not to

think of scary things.

 

I have to convince myself

my safari guides

don’t want me to be

gored by a rhino,

mauled by lions

or snapped in half by a hippo

any more than I want to be.

 

And I remind myself

that God is with me

wherever I go whether

Colorado, Arizona, Nebraska,

New York or Kenya.