TIME OF THE BABY ORYX

Waiganjo Ndirangu

In a spot in the wild
Among grass and cactus.
between two rivers flowing away –
each embroiled in its own course
Two eyes watching an afternoon terrain.

Panting in the Maasai Mara heat,
long teeth – teeth sent forth but recalled mid-hunt,
flashing menacingly yet leashed -
Restrained by as slender a strand of kindness
As the fleeting compassion of a rock in free fall
for the luckless ant on the ravine floor -
was a lioness.

And at the beasts warm side, a baby Oryx -
Her legs just firming, in the morning of her life
Lost to his kin to breath by the forest queen;
Looking for life in death’s lair
Sometime back in a Kenyan December.

Perhaps the innocence of careless prey
Perhaps the foolishness of starving predator;
Perhaps a sign from above –
For the lion and the lamb shall lie together.

Certainly, the shocked tourist.
Certainly two rivers flowed away -
Thief and a victim walked into an alleyway
Politician and voter kissed on the cheek.
For five impossible nights.

---

At first light
Glows the deep brown of an Oryx
Traipsing in the tropics among grass and cactus.

Wind whistles through grass and a beast yawns, walks
A ravening lion - keen on the meal he stalks.

The sun pauses, poised, an instant-
A lone witness to a callous mess unfolding
Among grass and cactus.

Panting from the venture is a full-cropped vulture;
It’s kin pick beaks and watch, from an acacia perch.

The head hyena hoots, leads away its cahoots
into a scavengers’ day, and two rivers flow away,
Among grass and cactus.

Settling dust, broken grass,
Blood here, a bone there.

Baring bloody canines
A lion lies sprawled
Among grass and cactus,
Where a baby Oryx once traipsed.

Kieni Bushes

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