Odyssey From Africa 3c4a
CHAPTER 3c continued
Till he happened to encounter
A much stronger river hunter
Hideous Jurassic lizard
Pulled him down with no returning
Other crocodiles converging
Made straight lines like silver arrows
Churned and twisted in the water
Then the other three turned homeward
Standing on the river's north bank
Matto, Lisa held each other
Watched their parents struggle closer
In their flimsy leaking vessel
Till at last they gained the shoreline
And all four embraced each other
Wept for joy at their reunion
Then the children saw the monkey
As their parents told the story
Of their orphaned ape companion
Lisa tenderly bent down and
Lifted up the baboon infant
"Can I have it as a pet, Mum?"
"I don't think that is a problem"
So the monkey was adopted
Lisa chose to call her Rosy
CHAPTER 4 The Eagle
With that crisis now behind them
They continued trekking northward
Feeling great relief and gladness
Rosy scampered after Lisa
Kwona gave to Han the paired horns
She had severed from the bull's head
Han was curious at their shape, and
Cut and trimmed them with his hatchet
He remembered watching children
Playing with a wood-carved wing shape
How when thrown it flew while spinning
Sometimes changing its direction
So he carved the pair of horns
Into a wing-like aerofoil
It was angled in its flat plane
Forming straight symmetric sections
Then they tested this new wing-form
Practiced how to throw it spinning
So it first flew straight and level
Then swerved up and back towards them
In their travelling that followed
This new boomerang proved useful
Guinea fowl and grassland rodents
Could be killed at quite a distance
Han was skilled at fire-starting
Matto tried to learn the method
Which took patient dedication
That the boy found hard to master
They would light a fire at evening
Roast some bird or beast above it
Sometimes vegetables and shellfish
Then it smouldered through the night-time
On they walked through grassy scrubland
Sensed an inclination upwards
In the distance seeing jungle
Covering a hilly landscape
One day Lisa and her brother
Played at throw and fetch with Rosy
They would toss a stick or seashell
And the monkey would retrieve it
Then an eagle spotted Rosy
Started flying low toward them
Swooping fast across the grassland
Seizing Rosy in its talons!
Han was watching as this happened
As the children cried in horror
Quick the boomerang was readied
Han took careful aim and cast it
Copyright © Phil Salmon | Year Posted 2017
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