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Odyssey From Africa 12d

Odyssey from Africa, Chapter 12 (d) The fireflower (cont.)

Dominated by one hilltop 
Round in form, it’s summit hidden
In the whiteness of a cloud base
There they saw their destination 

Now they climbed by steepening gradient
Through a changing vegetation 
To a lighter forest ambience 
As the trees became less crowded 

Soil and rock turned red in colour
At ground level here and there they
Saw the swollen stems and leaves and
Orange flowers of Aloe vera

Saw the twinkling purple calyx
Of the upland Kalanchoe
Stopping now to rest and eat, they
Sat together in a circle 

As their guide explained, these highlands  
Were a place to seek the fireflower
Find the lichen-mottled tree trunks 
With their sprays of slender branches 
 
Bearing high the vivid flame-like 
Blossoms of Delonix regia
So they formed a line of searching
And continued slowly onward 
 
Glimpsing once a red-mouthed fossa 
Crouching in a tree’s high branches 
With its kill, a ring tailed lemur 
As they passed it eyed them coldly
 
Then a fireflower tree was sighted 
Young and slender, rich with flowers 
Which but recently had opened 
In the thinnest topmost branches 
 
But these branches were too fragile
To support a human climber
Therefore Lisa summoned Rosy
And began communicating

To the monkey what was needed
That she climb and pick the fireflower 
Rosy now became excited 
To be gaining such attention 

So she quickly scaled the branches
And began to chew the fire flowers!
Lisa signaled to the primate
This was not what she had asked for!
 
Rosy finally got the message 
Tore off three or four fine branch tips
Richly covered with the fire flowers 
Which she brandished as a trophy
 
And she now grew animated
Started screeching with excitement 
Leaped and swung between the branches
Vanishing into the foliage 
 
Of the near surrounding forest
Holding fast her crimson fireflowers 
Matto and their young companions 
Started calling to the monkey
 
To return to them the flower twigs
The baboon, though, made no answer
Lisa was by this untroubled 
She paid Rosy no attention
 
Calmly turned about in silence 
Started walking down the hillside  
Beckoning to her companions 
To commence their homeward journey 
 
As they all retraced their footsteps 
As they climbed the steepest incline
Downhill through the highland forest 
Rosy now appeared among them

In her hand the brightly coloured 
Bundle of the fireflower branches
Now had grown to twice the number
Covered with the healing petals

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