A Struggle For Survival (Free Verse Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

Lighting quick runs the springbuck, the impala and the bontebok
but quicker still is death that sneaks closer in the undergrowth
and in its footfall it does avoid every piece of broken stick
as a caracal, cheetah, leopard, lion or hunter
and those antelope do sniff in the air and listen to the ground
where at ease they drink at a stream and do graze
for signs of predators and do prick up their ears for the human and his dog
as existence does depend on avoiding these dangers
and when the jackal howls and the hyena laughs,
the vultures do screeching spread their wings wide and slap them
then there is death that waits in the thickets on a place and time
that comes unnoticed to the plain where the antelope do walk around
where both life and death does hang on mere moments
where even here You do control things like Your will does want them to be.

© Gert Strydom