The Elephant has no shepherd

There is a thorn blanket
Woven between the thicket
A red carpet of lost toes
Trod day by day
To the waterhole

There is poison berry
Inviting from the green ceilings
A juicy treat from the anunebe
Drunk day by day
With lunch

There is the fake mating call
Inviting across the plains
The heady pheromone on every leaf
Inflaming with each breath
Carried across the trap

There is the smooth path
Across the quicksand lawn
The inviting relief for aching feet
Sucking the herd soothingly
Beyond relief

There is the distant booms
Of massacre and fire
Massing cinder on cinder
Promising inheritance
Of torched grass lands

There is the cacophony
Of baboons telling the stork
Of quela flock telling the locust
Each voice raised in assurance
Of the path down the long lost lake

There is the growl
Of massed hunger hidden
Murderous eyes shinning in the bushes
Waiting to claim the first scalp
And the last meal

There is the glade beyond the hills
Away from the spears of many cuts
There is the calm beyond the rainbow
But the elephant has no shepherd.

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