The Beauty Of My City Poem by Phillip Nine Mafunga

In the middle of the night, Smokey was hysterical
Smokey is my lovely dog
I pushed the curtain aside and pear into the dimly lit outside
There was a lone hippo bull
The hippo was enjoying the cool of the night.
Grazing on the manicured lawns along the way

The other night a lone young elephant bull
Strolled away from the rest of the bachelors
And strayed into my yard straight to my garden
He had a tasty dinner for himself
The gang had come many times before
They tore down the fence and broke the gate on the way.

Broken perimeter fences and walls
Tree trunks ripped apart
Mounds of dung scattered in their paths
Bachelors roam the streets carefree.
Then one huge guy holds his trumpet high up in the sky
With a loud piercing sound; shrilling the daylights out of us mortals

On the other side of civilization, a herd of buffaloes ambles across the road
They seem not to care about the traffic; they are the traffic this part of the world
Low mooo sounds as they proceed to nowhere, seemingly!
These guys fight together, stick together and moan their dead together
The lone, excommunicated bull is dangerous, extremely dangerous
He is forever very angry, to be approached with extra care.

Then on the roofs and up in the trees are notorious primates
Baboons are a terror in the city
Never leave your home and car windows open or you'll regret it
Monkeys are very daring and rude for their stature
Baboons and monkeys seem to know the difference between men and women
They are scared of men and daring against women.

Then you have families of warthogs roaming the city
One such family waits for me to wet my garden,
Then boom, they are in there, ploughing through merrily
The leopard is not far off; hides up in the trees to watch
This the beauty of modernity mixing with the old wild
This is the beauty of my city: Mosi Oa Tunya!
01/07/2021