Beastial Hypnosis Poem by Godiah Imbukuleh

When we visited the park recently
Many people were eager to see him
But I wasn't among them
I wanted to feel and see power.
When the day arrived
I waited with bated breath

One, two, three—the man called out
Tick tock, tick tock, the clock whispered
Finally dong! The clock chimed
The hour had arrived
The most coveted hour.
They marched in heavily armed
Their heavy hooves thudding and thundering.
We heaved and sighed in silence
The crowd lashed into a hush by the sheer show of the wild

Suddenly, there was a distant cooing of a dove
But it wasn't really a dove, was it?
Then there were more sounds
The screeching and scratching
The belching and blowing
The constant sizzling, hissing and whistling



The silence from the crowd was telling
The Fear was no longer in their eyes
The initial shock supplanted with wonder
And as the chorus ran through the crowd
Like a vocalised Mexican wave
We absorbed the seductive hypnosis of the untamed
The sheer primitivity of the animal
and went wild with nature.