Gazelles

Morning wind-wind-everywhere
Water mouth-dry-mouth-dry finish
G-a-z-e-l-l-e-s gazelles
Hooves s-e-e-d-s there stuck.

Gazelles trot-trot
Hooves s-e-e-d-s fall-away
Grass meld-pillow protect.

Feel eyes-eyes-look-search hunger
Sense ready
Fingersnaps gazelle p-r-o-n-k how:

Legs-stiffen leap-straight-up
Back-shoulders-drop
Tail-up drop head-up drop p-r-o-n-k that.

Gazelles-pronk-pronk
Look-like eye-shimmer, eye-shimmer
Body-shimmer kill can’t.

From the winds that scheme to dry
every drop of moisture at dawn, they gather
seeds, lodged between their hooves.


Everywhere they trot, they leave behind
seeds, hoping that their grass-blades
will knife the knolls into pillows

when they sense other eyes prowling
for a kill. Then they shoot straight up,
their legs stiff with hiding quivers,

their backs arch upward, bridging
their shoulders and tails hanging limp,
as they drop their heads straight down,

their bodies shimmering like mirages
punching everyone’s eyes out.
They are too vibrant for slaughter.

 

2
 

Night pop-up stories shh
Stories stay no-no
Stories winds-blow-away
Secrets cherish-cherish.

Gazelles smell-smell lie-lie finish
Men hunters mind-dumb do-do
P-i-s-s here there over there
Gazelles smell-smell avoid finish.

Experience-experience happen-happen
Stories body-inspire
Moon eyes shine think-hide rifle
Gazelles catch-catch finish.

Hunters jaw-drop gazelles group
Move-together cloud-move-together
D-u-s-t rise avoid death.

Tend happen what
Hunters watch nights
Gazelles stand-stand tail-twitch-twitch
Hope land somewhere safe.

At night stories tiptoe with them.
No one ever records them. Not even the winds.
They are small, but secrets nurture them.


Their noses have learned the scent of lies.
Hunters keep marking their hiding places
with their piss. The gazelles case their borders.


They see things that inspire legends.
The glint of moon in black eyes staring at them
from the bush, calculating whether to shoot.


The stunned cackle of teeth when gazelles sail
en masse over clouds of dust, cracks of heat,
our bodies snapping the neck of death.

But most of the time they simply watch.
Their limbs, dexterous and inured to danger,
twitch dreams of unmarked countries.

 

3
 

C-h-e-e-t-a-h gazelles watch know-inside-out
Gazelles mother show legs-zigzag
Time surprise laughter-catch.

Leaves delicious gazelles attract eat
Eyes-open-look-that-way flicker
Gazelle-tails-perk-up-all
Mind-telepathy c-a-t finish.

Fingersnaps gazelles-scatter-from-center
Leave-behind smell-smell poop
Flies-flies-buzz c-h-e-e-t-a-h finish.

Gazelles-gallop escape
Cheetah-eyes-stay-same run-run-after
Gazelles-zigzag-sideways.

Hair-bare-escape
Cheetah-teeth cheetah-claw
Gazelles-zigzag fast, slow
Cheetah-trip-trip
Gazelles-proud-pronk-pronk.

Gazelles know all about cheetahs.
They’ve learned from their mothers
the art of zigzagging, the power of surprise.

Leaves of succulence bid them closer. Distant
flicker of shadow, spots, ringed tail alerts them.
Their breaths murmur the scent of cat, now.


They scatter: a crater of half-chewed leaves,
dung, and flies flailing in his lightning wind
thundering from behind the scruffy bush.

They coagulate like veins galloping from his heart
of hunger, those cold eyes of cat sleeking speed,
until they twist abruptly, sideways, their necks

barely whisking the nick of his fangs and claw.
Changing tempo and direction, their hooves are staccato
music driving him to exhaustion. They pronk.