Odyssey From Africa 9b
Odyssey from Africa
Chapter 9b (continued)
And this pattern was repeated
On the following day's journey
As the day turned into evening
They again found rocky shoreline
So once more they hunted shellfish
This time needing to dive deeper
And the children now competed
In the deepness of their diving
Lisa filled her lungs and plunging
Deeper than her brother Matto
Swam toward a rocky reef face
Looked for brightly coloured scallops
From the reef a frond extended
Soft, unfolding, lined with suckers
Grabbing Lisa by one ankle
Pulled her down to murky darkness
Matto, trying to out-do her
Deepest dive saw Lisa struggling
For an instant glimpsed the terror
In her eyes, then had to surface
Matto called out to his father
That an octopus had Lisa!
Han was too far off to save her,
Shouted back with dire instructions
Matto grimaced at the prospect
But without a moment's pausing
Turned back to the sea and leaping,
Pitched into the foamy water
Diving swiftly to the reef-face
Matto saw the monstrous mollusc
Tentacles wrapped all round Lisa
To its ugly beak it pulled her
As its bulbous eyes fixed on him
Matto swam straight at the creature
Sank his teeth between those eyeballs
Biting deep into the brainstem
Then he bit again, yet deeper
Cloudy darkness spread all round them
As the octopus, now dying
Squirted ink into the water
Matto reached and found his sister
Wrenched aside the clinging tendrils
And the siblings, lungs near bursting
Swam up to the shimmering sunlight
As they broke the surface, gasping
Han was by them in the water
Strong arms helped the children shoreward
Only Kwona staying land-bound
Wearing the Ipiki necklace
And with Rosy close beside her
Who was anxious and disquieted
Seeing Lisa in the water
Where the monkey could not follow
Now both parents hugged their children
Once again they celebrated
Rescue from a deadly danger
Lisa rested in the sunlight
With her mother sitting by her
Han and Matto turned however
Back toward the breaking sea swells
Diving both beneath the surface
Down they swam toward the reef-face
Saw the octopus which strangely
Was contorted in its dying
Two sand sharks already circled
Round the octopus now drifting
Limply in the swirling eddies
Han and Matto took a handhold
On a tentacle and lifting
Both together swimming upward
Raised the now distending mollusc
Languidly toward the surface
Copyright © Phil Salmon | Year Posted 2017
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