Sunday, November 3, 2013

Like I appeared from nowhere


somewhere in Africa
at a rural school
students, teachers, dream people
making audio recordings
part of a class project
I am out in the savannah
red dry dirt
thorny scrub bush
recording sounds from a small nest
several feet away
I hear movement
a larger animal
I freeze listening
through the amplification
of the microphone
a lion cub emerges
from the bush
he is playful
doesn't seem to notice me
I realize they are listening
back at the school
whisper there's a lion
I back slowly away from the nest
which now is a small tree stump
I am about ten feet away
the cub rubs his face on the stump
then his ass and balls
I can see his penis emerge
marking the territory
now I hear an adult lion
stirring in the brush
I keep backing away
they still haven't noticed me
I can smell the rut of the lion
the animal odor of the fur
I keep thinking
if I walk slowly backwards
never turning my back on them
trying not to stumble
I will not be attacked
still no sign of the adult lion
but I can sense it is right there
if it emerges while I am close
it will attack me
when I am about 100 yards away
I finally turn the other way
I turn and begin to run
now it seems I can hear
what is going on at the school
sounds of chaos and terror
I worry the lion
has found the school
I come to a road
I am standing on an embankment
above the road
a strange creature
like nothing I have seen before
pale white with more than four legs
fur and hide
is lumbering downy the road
I don't know if it will attack me
when I jump down
if it is like a lion
or it it is like a cow
I jump down
and am relieved to realize
it is more like a cow
it just stares at me
like I appeared from nowhere