Odyssey From Africa 6b
CHAPTER 6 b (continued...)
Glowing insects and night-crawlers
Shuffling on the ground below them
Moments later they were sleeping
Near their hominid companions
In our present day, gorillas
Tend to sleep near to ground level
But their Pleistocene forefathers
Nested higher in the branches
Keeping safe from forest hunters
Sabertooths and others like them
Han and Kwona and the Children
Soundly slept high in their tree-house
When they finally awakened
Morning sun had long since risen
By their nest a few gorillas
Had a pile of hard-shelled berries
Balanced on some leaves and branches;
With their teeth they cracked them open
Gathered up the opened kernels
Held them out toward the children
Matto and her sister Lisa
Took and ate the proffered items
Disregarding thoughts of hygiene
For the reason of politeness
Han and Kwona then did likewise
So they feasted on the berries
Their gorilla hosts provided
And felt much the better for it
To the business of the daytime
Now the troop turned their attention
As the silverback group leader
Beckoned Han and Matto forward
To accompanied the leader
And a chosen group of menfolk
On patrol, to check for danger
Round the border of their kingdom
Thus dividing as to gender
Kwona and her daughter Lisa
Were recruited by the females
Foraging for nuts and berries
Each group journeyed through the forest
On the ground or in the branches
Sometimes swinging from the foliage
Strength and skill were greatly tested
Then some younger male gorillas
Turned their curious attention
To the items Han was carrying
Boomerang and stone-edged hatchet
As they walked into a clearing
Han gave them a demonstration
Launched the boomerang flat-spinning
So it swiftly skimmed the grass-stems
Then inflected sharply upwards
Banking sideways and returning
To the rapt, astonished gazes
Of their giant ape companions
Grunts and mutters of approval
Broke out from the watching primates
One young male retrieved the wing-form,
Curiously he felt and weighed it
Then he tried to swing and throw it
Imitating Han's delivery
But the wing was facing downward
And it crashed into the bushes
Han now gave the ape instruction
In the method of the launching
So not many minutes later
He achieved a fair trajectory
Then across the grassy clearing
There arrived another party
Of the females and the infants
Almost all the troop was gathered
Copyright © Phil Salmon | Year Posted 2017
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