Poets of Masai Mara

A short business trip to Kenya extended to the lovely African Savannahs of Masai Mara. You can figure the camera was bad. But the experience is undesribable. Poetry and musings may better elaborate the heaven I've been through. I would urge everyone of you reading this to plan a trip to the Masai soon. You'll come back a changed person.

Oh, heaven is a place on Earth.

The Perkin's Tent from Harry Potter

The shaky small ride

The mud runway in the middle of the jungle

Read on :)

Masai is the tribe, and Mara means spotted

And land I saw, with rocks splattered like stars.

Flat trees with leaves reminiscent of clouds.

Tufts of clouds above, mara the blue skyscape

Tufts of trees below, mara the green landscape

the sounds of birds, left and right

The siber trees, praying upwards

in a harmonious arrangement, like columns supporting the blue ceiling

.

Frontiers of migration - coming in early to sickle the long grass

Stripes on a zebra like an artist's stroke of black on a white canvas. 

The tail, swaying like a pendulum, flitching it's skin like that of a clock's second hand.

baby zebra being nursed by her mother her tail swinging to the tune of a lullaby

ears folding forward and backward.

Staring at me.

With a gaze so powerful.

Am I scaring you?

Of the topi - the endemic antelope, fastest in beasts, very vigilant

The skin, glistening in the sun, like that of pure copper, 

With tails swivelling round like that of a propellor. 

Faces marked with a black line down on front

Each leg covered in stocking

It's blue denim hugging the legs with a tight fit.

the mighty, yawning lioness

exhibiting those 4 fangs

and flapping its cloth like tongue

sitting under the bush, the little cub yawns and shies away from the camera

the mother sleeps in a posture resembling a renaissance model being painted by an artist

keeps an eye on us

the little cub licks his skin, so delicately, as if the skin may come off

yet the golden hair glistens in glory

gets up and stretches, even the little one has a royal stance in the movement of its tiny legs

first twitching the skin to remove the flies as it soaks the sun, then using the cute paws.

even as the lioness. the queen nurses her child,her tail does not lullaby like  that of the zebra. 

she sleeps in her own deserved time, breathing in quiet, heavy motion.

the little one is all on its own, it needs to suckle away as its mother sleeps

in communal suckle with its co-princes.

the lion opens its mouth wide and digs deep into the meat

it's canines pressing on the soft fesh; its paws rest at the back

the wind scintillates the nearby white flowers of the bush and his mane

it presses on the wild beast as it pulls out the red, maroon and white goo

the smell of bad meat...why is it bad if it is natural?

it digs into the skin, crushes the cartilage

the reason why the lion is the king of the jungle, because it doesn't care if anyone's around

if anyone's taking pictures - he knows he deserves that attention

elephant's tail hanging like a thread with a heavy ball.

it's big large flaps of ears. 

it's textured skin and slow, thoughtful paces.

leopard

black tail with white tuft

spotted with holes and tail curling up

its end sqinging.

muscualr movement like a body builder

pauses, evaluates decibels.

continues.

lying on its side, the spotted cheetah pops up her neck and fixates her gaze on our jeep. 

her breath is gentle

and like the trees spot the landscape, 

her near brown spots, small and large, mark her body.

her small ears, almost the size of her eyes

pray to the sky. she moves her paw occassionally

her cat like features shine through. her breast stands out

The female cheetah is lonely. Solitary like the lions.

'Tis the males who may form a collation.

with dog like feet, unretractable claws

it roams around the masai mara ecosystem.

Killed by hyenas and lions, existence in danger

Its weakness among the cat family is taken advantage of.

It has its pickiness- they only eat fresh meat. Unlike lions.

Its elegance is seen - it doesn't sweat. Hence pound a lot.

The young cheetah is left along after 2 years in a 14 year lifespan.

an indivudalistic hunter- the Cheetah fends for itself.