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Written by Stephen Derwent Partington
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Tuesday, 18 August 2009 |
"A giant herd of cattle has fled from northern Kenya into the Borena one in Ethiopia to escape a drought. The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization says the herd numbers more than 200,000. Although seasonal migration across the border is normal, this is the largest influx recorded in 10 years," a UN statement said.' BBC report- 2009
 | Wildebeeste making their annual migration. Photo: CC
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Wildebeest are fine: I understand their urge,
that yearly need to pack and get away,
their annual slalom past the prides of lion,
hopscotch over crocodiles and birthing on the run.
But mobs of cattle, that’s another matter. Who
for instance, owns them? Are they wild?
Wild cows? You’d sooner conjure
swarms of savage teddy bears or sloths.
200,000 of them low across
the border, like a queue of ships at Suez
blowing warnings through the night.
Their clumsy dromedary humps loll, raw
and supplicating loosely like a mouth of thirsty tongues.
The nodding prow of them nudge rootingly at dust,
their wake a turbulence of egrets, and their ribs
the keels of Pilgrim Father brigs.
What can we do but wish them well, their
wide America? I wish them plains of emerald
like fields of minted fudge, and cowpats
glutinous as dough. But not this funeral cortege,
this lowing dirge, each cow collapsing like
a shipmate’s heavy bag of jangling tools upon
the decking, as he stands, cow-eyed and gaping
at the sight of – what!? – 200,000 mermaids at the stern. |
Stephen Derwent Partington |
| About the author: |
| Steve
D. Partington is the Poet of the Anthology, SMS & Face to Face,
founder of the Kenyan Poetry Catalyst, he has published numerous
literary papers in East Africa and Britain and he is a Head teacher at
a school in Machakos, on the outskirts of Nairobi.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 18 August 2009 )
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