Describe a risk you took that you do not regret.
In open safari vehicle
my driver Robert
drives right up on the lions
who have killed and eaten
a water buffalo
of last night’s kill
I can smell the carcass
and hope that they
are too full
to find interest in me
Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you.
On safari
with my daughter
sharing the joy
of being together
the thrill of a rare siting
look
a leopard
lots of lions
look
a caracal
small cats are harder to see
antelope
bat-eared fox
caracal
dik dik
elephant
fish eagle
gazelle
hyena
impala
jackal
kudu
lion
mongoose
Nile crocodile
oryx
panther
quagga
rhino
serval
topi
uromastyx
vervet monkey
wildebeest
xerus
yellow baboon
zebra
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NaPoWriMo Day 18 to write an abecedarian. I am on safari now and have seen many of these.
Do you hear the lion roar?
Black maned big boy
walks across the plain
looking for dinner
I hope it’s not me
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NaPoWriMo Day 13 prompt from the serious to funny?
yellow boat resting
unpredictable ocean
comes out of doldrums
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dVerse prompt to write of yellow
“Polepole”
I would hear as I step
from the Land Cruiser
(they don’t want me to fall)
“Polepole”
so I move slow
until my feet
are on the ground
“Karibu”
Welcome
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NaPoWriMo Day 11
The seed of a poem lay dormant in my heart, like turnips I planted last summer, old seed that I threw on the ground. I watered and watered and a few sprouted, needing protection from slugs. I left them in the fall. Their winter was hard and had snow, while I traveled across country, then across continents into Africa, to tropical landscapes and 12 foot kale.
I forgot about my garden back home, my newly planted asparagus, lingonberry bushes, shallots, garlic and those old turnip seeds. Forgot about my hopes that a winter garden was possible.
In March my husband returned home without me (he doesn’t go overseas). He got the urge to work in the garden. His call to me, “Is this a vegetable or a weed?” It was my turnip.
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dVerse prompt flash nonfiction in 144 words or less using the quote in italics by Valsa George from Winged Words
The world is a baobab
teeming with life and water
without water it shrivels
and dies
[Ibu Batuta an Arab explorer in East Africa saw a baobab and recorded it in his 14th century travelogue
botanist Alpino in 1592 ate the fruit while in Egypt and called it Bahobab from the Arabic buhibab which means many-seeded fruit
French explorer Michal Adanson observed a baobab in 1749 on the island of Sor in Senegal recognized the fruit described by Alpino and called it baobab]
Now the singing tree of superstition is alive
and filled with water
holding perhaps 12,000 gallons
replenishes itself in the rainy season
kuokoa
who stops the rain?
bwana anaokoa
Oh singing tree of superstition
bark taking water in
smooth bark
leaves like a vegetable
everything here for survival
pulp of the seed like candy
ciru
beautiful inside and out
qualities that go forward into the ages
living thousands of years
Oh singing tree
withering prophet
speak for the world
tuokoe
save us
Oh singing tree that gives blessings
and curses
in you there is life
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NaPoWriMo Day 8 “Twenty Little Poetry Projects”
In the shade of the baobab tree
boto drivers wait to give rides
slim cattle rest from the sun
there are children who sit briefly
watching the cars and trucks
as the dust flies up
and the old men sit in their chairs
or walk further down the road
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NaPoWriMo Day 7 prompt to write a list poem
At the baby elephant orphanage
penned in area of water hole
straw and muck
I slipped
fell
in the mud
crowd gasping
I came up laughing
wondering if
I would end up on tiktok
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NaPoWriMo Day 5 prompt — even the elephants were slipping
wordshophop 