Our Wild Life Beckons

The mighty roar of the King of the Bush at the crack of dawn, Its majestic sound, being the first Thing you hear, as you yawn, And the laugh of the sly hunch backed Hyena, as it creeps, slouched Close to the fence, Behind it many other savage animals In a veld so green, thorny and dense! Safe in your bungalow, you make coffee For you and hubby And excitedly map out your adventurous Journey from today to Friday, My cheeks still flushed our adrenalin high, Just after our roll in the hay. We start our adventure, High up in a tree, looking towards the Fast flowing crocodile river, is a fish eagle, We hear it’s cry, We have the windows open, just a bit, And abruptly stop as thirty or more cars Are parked watching a grizzly breakfast of Lions feasting on the remains of a baby elephant, So young, in the wild its chances slim, bound to die, Rolled up the windows a terrible stench, Saw squabbling vultures tearing chunks of its ear, So sad, so ugly, held in their tight claw clench. It filled every single one of us with fear, Yet, still we watched, parked very near. Each of us in the safety of our cars, Some of these sights were bound to leave scars. We heard the trumpeting of elephants Ever so close, a vengeful elephant mother and sibling Perhaps, we all took off, the fish eagle Had been fishing, a small barbell in its talons. Many giraffes cross the road, a tower Of them, traversing through woodlands and Veld, with a grunt and a snort, but recent Observation indicates that mostly they hum At night, giraffes are such delicate, dainty Creatures, with long eye lashes, a little dumb, But a war weapon if an opponent is kicked In the ribs for the predator will die, So in fact, a giraffe is a brave strong guy. A crash of rhinos deadly is their weight and horn Don’t tempt fate and go too near, you’ll be forlorn. Over the five days we saw leopard and their beautiful Baby cubs crossing the road, we saw buffalo herds, They always seem cross and are easily angered, They are found in great numbers, always gathered. Our 5 day trip comes to an end, sad, but will visit Again soon, and as a send-off and special Goodbye, we see a pack of wild dogs close to The roadside, inquisitive and endangered, they are A rare sight to behold, a strong matriarchal hierarchy, Cannot be tamed and when hunting can cause anarchy. Imagine if we could live in the Kruger Park, Perhaps on second thoughts, no lark!