Safari Animals

Hippo looks so very slow

just make it mad

and watch it go

Cheetah lying in the grass

sways its tail while leaning back

waiting for an antelope

Elephant eats and eats

tearing branches from a tree

makes a big dung pile

Zebra photographs the best

standing lovely with its stripes

is it black or is it white

Maasai giraffe has different patterns

not so common as the others

its neck touches tree tops

Lion eats a killed buffalo

sleeps in the day to get some rest

back to the hunt at night

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dVerse prompt on animals

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Caracal Siting

Need a zoom lens

I’m too far away

to see the whiskers

on the small cat’s face

grab my binoculars

to see it better now—

long pointed ears

with black tufted points

stripes on head

tan body

it turns

and walks into the bush

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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille using the word zoom. I would have loved having a zoom lens to photograph the elusive caracal, a rare siting on the Maasai Mara.

Maasai Mara

The lions were sleeping from a food hangover brought on by feasting all night on a water buffalo. Two females, a young male and the dominant male were lying near the carcass. On the road we had seen a young male, alone under a tree. The game driver said that lion had been outcast because he had killed the cubs of a female. Another female was now hiding her cubs in the bush to keep them alive.

The driver takes us straight to the carcass. The dominant male gets up for seconds. The ribs have been stripped of meat. The head still there. He is not interested in me today. I watch as he applies pressure from his teeth, his paws.

on the open plain

animals graze and lookout

preying or preyed on

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dVerse prompt to write a haibun about a situation of pressure. I was going to add a photo but kind of gross.

Safari

I went to Mombasa

I did not see rain

there is drought in Amboseli

elephants are dying

wildebeests zebras Maasai giraffe

🦒🐘🦒🐘🦒🐘🦒🐘🦒🐘🦒🐘

I went to Maasai land

I did not see a bow

only spears and panga

arrows used to kill

when the loins attack

🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆

I went to Maasai Mara

to see the wildlife

thunderstorms on the horizon

got wet in the landrover

viewed a perfect rainbow

🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

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dVerse prompt to use a threesome. My choice is rain, bow and rainbow.