Skip to content

Poetry

Please read and enjoy these submissions!

Remember to take note of the code (poe1-poe39) and to vote here for first place, here for second place and here for third place.

poe23: Cheetah Kill

She was leading,
they lolloping, a-gambol;
a mother with three’s hunger,
and they were uncaring,
a-gambol, trusting.
                                 The herd moved on steadily
                                  with the sureness of the ram,
                                  flicking tufted hocks forward,
                                  blinded by the wind.
The wind, and the silence
in the shade
smudging her against the earth
below the tree.
                        Into the bright stillness
                        a moving darkness
                        stretching down the slope
                        and the desperate drumming
of hooves veering
from the smooth curve,
tail floating high, of Death.
His death in the dust,
life jerking against her hold.
                                                                                       
Now see, my children,
how I drag his body
from the searching eyes
of the thieves above.
Eat, my children,
before the thieves of the plain
sidle close.

My only strength is in my speed.

 

(Written after seeing a female cheetah kill a springbok ram close to Mata Mata in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park)

poe1 poe2 poe3 poe4 poe5 poe6 poe7 poe8
poe9 poe10 poe11 poe12 poe13 poe14 poe15 poe16
poe17 poe18 poe19 poe20 poe21 poe22 poe23 poe24
poe25 poe26 poe27 poe28 poe29 poe30 poe31 poe32
poe33 poe34 poe35 poe36 poe37 poe38 poe39 home