TANZANIA Safari POETRY Continued (6): Poem 11 and 12 (of 16)
Poems 11 and 12 describe personalities we met along the way—highlight less typical cultural exchanges and adaptations. (Please don’t forget to check out the other Tanzania Safari Poetry blog posts before and after this one.)
11. Safari—Day 7
Bats by night
Bows by day
Our last tented camp
Another sleep entertained rest
Malarone dreams, the best
Wildlife squawking and screeching
Tent solid
No breaching
Electricity and water rationed
Camp hostess impassioned
Lovely Argentinean married to German
Children speak Swahili
A goddess in beads and white linen
Male travelers’ heads spinen
With the Hadzabe tribe they get to strut their stuff
Shoot arrows—just enough
Another cultural exchange
Bracelets and necklaces at a price
Reciprocity nice
Journey back
Dust hard to swallow.
12. Safari—Day 8
Masai village resort
A transitional place
Others set the pace
Texan in charge
Enables aspiring talent to live large
Neither country nor city folk
A different life they know
A cultural exchange, quick training
Everyone gaining…or not
Masai musicians and acrobats at dinner
Later they guard our rooms
With spears, not brooms
What are they thinking?
What are we thinking?
Merging the ancient with the modern
The affluent with the down-trodden
Begging inevitable
Who are the culpable?
A future that’s hard to surge
Paths diverge
For me, not a happy feeling
We lie in our cozy beds at night
Their experience, more of a fight.
