Guinea Fowl Hunt (Free Verse Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

We are at Seven Oaks, the neighbour's farm,
when one of the Von Hörsten boys wound a guinea fowl,
where it falls from the sky and lightning quick does run away
where from the pickup truck he does shoot with a.22 rifle
where we follow that wounded animal as very young boys,
like hunting dogs where it flees screaming
and I learn how fast a guinea fowl can run
where over the ploughed field it does run in the direction of the stream
and short on its bloody trail we chase it up and down
before somewhere in the thicket of the hillock it does disappear
and loyal we follow the bloody trail
as no one can leave a animal to suffer
and we are ready to again run our lungs out
when we find it dead from loss of blood under an umbrella-thorn bush.

© Gert Strydom