Ashe Oleng Poem by Thabo Seseane

(A song of awe and gratitude for the Masai Mara)

The children are playing on the carpet,
The green carpet with white decorations.
Adults are clustered in scattered groups.
They stand, eating; sometimes they have to move
And make passages for our clattering,
Clumsy approach along the green carpet.

Haphazard shapes - surely broken white stems -
Lie among the dainty, frail white flowers:
The work of a giant artist, job done.
Sprinkles of white petals and matching stems:
Perfect contrasts on the massive carpet,
On the green carpet as it undulates.

Gentle petals of sun - bleached skulls and broken bones
Picked clean by vultures and marabou storks -
Gauche companions lying side by side -
Incongruous soul-mates sharing colour:
Bound by bonds of oneness to the source, they
Share this green table-cloth of life from death.