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No Secret Where Elephants WalkPOETRY& IMAGESAFRICA

CAROLANDARNIEKANTER


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No Secret Where Elephants WalkPOETRY& IMAGESAFRICA

CAROLANDARNIEKANTER


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2010 by Carol Kanter and Arnold Kanter. All rights reserved.

Published by P & I Press

1226 Judson Ave.Evanston, IL [email protected]

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopyingand recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-615-32889-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009911930

Printed in China

Cover Photo: Sable, Kenya

Acknowledgments:

Cleansing the KillEarths Daughters, Splinters & Fragments, Issue #72, 2008.

Mourning RitualCommon Ground Review, Vol. 9, No. 4, Spring/Summer, 2007.

Versions of the following appeared in a chapbook, Out of Southern Africa, 2005, published by Finishing Line Press:

Absence on the Magkudigkudi Salt Pans

AmphibiousArt of Dress-UpAssailable WarthogCape BuffaloMeerkats of the KalahariNo secret where elephants walk.Ostrich AttractionPrideRapprochementScary VeldtStatuesqueStill Life with Giraffe Head

Termite Monarchies


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Introduction

Taking photographs and writing poems have both challenged us and allowed us to extend the pleasuresof our journeys, keeping them vivid in our memories. These pursuits have also allowed us to share ourtravel experiences more fully with family and friends.

We are fortunate to have traveled widely together, but have always worked on our chosen artisticpursuits independently. When we considered a friends suggestion that we publish a book that combinesour poetry and photography, we were surprised to find how often our two different takes fit together.

In retrospect, this is not so surprising. We were, after all, on the same trips. And forty-five years ofmarriage probably helps, too.

Though each poem relates to the photograph it accompanies, it does not necessarily reflect exactly whatthe photo captures. Rather, we offer our separate reactions to what we saw and experienced, in somecases similar and, in others, quite different. In only a few instances were poems written specifically toaccompany photos in this collection.

In this volume we combine the poetry and images from three trips to AfricaSouth Africa, Botswana

and Zambia in 2003; Kenya and Uganda in 2004; and Kenya and Tanzania in 2008. All three helpedus to discover more about our world, and our selves. We are pleased to invite you to share these tripswith us, and hope that this book may inspire some of you to prolong and enhance the enjoyment of yourown travels through the exercise of your particular artistic talents.

Carol and Arnie KanterEvanston, IllinoisApril, 2010


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Rpondez, Sil Vous Plat

Come sample Africa to feastthrough camera lens and scrim of mindon veldts, lakes, deserts south and eastMeet people, cheetah, wildebeestand should a view or line releasesome thoughts beyond, then on those dineCome sample Africa to feast

through camera lens and scrim of mind


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In Camp

Groomed, this oasis, and hard-wonbut not cordoned off from, say, the larger cats.Animals are free to venture inbut tend to spurn unnatural habitats.Birds, of course, take full advantage, comeroutinely minutes after dawn. They ownthe early mist, troll for breakfast crumbs

(caramel rolls they much prefer to scones).

Despite birdsong, silence wraps the scene,and swaddled in the chill that lingers herestray ideas, wild waking dreamscongeal, vibrant in dews silver mirrormosaics, say, of cats who gaze on kingswhile a-tremble, daylight crouches in the wings.


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Adolescent

On break from tussles with his twinbeneath the bushwhere their mother left them

where they rolled around, mouthedeach others necks andon their backsin dappled shadepawed air.

Suspended, the home-school lessonson how to slink into tall grasscrouch silent, eyes wide.

Already he has learned howunder cover of darkto ambush small prey

rehearsal for the larger gamehe will hunt and killonce he grows into his giant paws.

He will claw-mark treesand lay down urine claims, intentthat all respect his bailiwick.

Turning his spotted back

on childs playnot to say, on joy

he will stalk his range alone.


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A Snapshot Stage

Her teenage boyfriend has adorned herwith these heavy strings of beads

signs of his infatuation, his temporary claimwhich she keeps on even when she sleeps.

Theirs, a practice coupling, a rite of passage

for trials at giving and getting

at bonding, loyalty, obedienceto customs set by the community at large.

They knew, from the get-go, her familypromised her to some tribal elder

who will take her for a wife, remove her

to his own village circle.

She will go circumcised, unencumberedby her necklaces, to a mud hut

she must build for herself, for her childrenrarely to see parents or beau again.


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The Ubiquitous ImpalaOn its buttocks, the McDonald signnot gold, but a black arched Mbrands this antelopefast food served far and wide, fair game for all.

Wolfed down in quantities by the big catsby jackals, by wild dogs,

how can it escapeprime mention on world-watch endangered lists?

Within two winter weeksdoes turn out a full new crop of fawnand when the weaker, slower,luckless young fall prey, the others carry on

brown eyes brimful of will to live

to multiply.On orange alertheads highears and nose a-twitchoff they streak

at the earliest whiff of danger,all in one direction, a strong arc windrippling tan and creamthrough tall, dry grass that opens, closes up

susurrant as water that eraseswhere gentle life has passedwhile in its wake liliesrock upon their scalloped pads.


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Safari

View the veldts large mammals in their natural habitatthe ones most people boast about, but please dont stop at that.Take interest in the smaller ones, of some youve never heardlike the umpteen kinds of antelope. And DO NOT MISS THE BIRDS.


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On WealthSelf-named cowherds of the world, they walkfor miles on legs reed thin and kudu long.They learned from youth to dance in Maasai stylewith sandaled feet that spring Air-Jordan strong,well-nourished by the cows they tend and countlike living gold, cows they milk and bleed

with just-so frequency in set amounts,cows they thank and praise by wearing beads,

elaborate strings that ripple white and red.But a man must pay her father precious cattleeach time he settles on a girl to wedhow many wives true measure of his mettle.

So, streaking the veldt like crimson-breasted birds

sons, swathed in blood-red prints, attend the herds.


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They strip bark,trample underbrush, uprootbushes in wide swaths, toppleenormous trees.

To deal with such destruction,officials in Zimbabwe

cull whole familiesleaving none to mourn, noneto remember.

But South Africa lets naturetake its course,so elephants grazethe vast reaches of Kruger Parkapproachable and unafraid

though the wind whistleswarnings through the large roundsymmetric holein the matriarchs flapping earlobe

its tune the triumphal marchfrom Aida,

the part where women dancewith tambourines

the crescendo part where allhail the paradeof real-live horsesand elephants decked outwith conquerors.

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Unnamedin the Big Fivehe stands a cut abovein silhouetteagainst blue sky

arrayed

in brown reticulatefrom knobby headwith stubby,tufted, no-trophy hornsto bad-rap clovenhooves.

He eats the highesttender leaves

only elephantscan reach to share.

Without herd or land,he solos freeof our and mine.But when he sees two lionswake, sit up and sniffzebras grazing near him

too low to see so farhe and three cohorts forman ad hoc posseto arrest the carnivoresbefore they act.

In one calm line the pre-possessing fourstrideright legs,left legs, rightglidewith such slow gracethe choreographyconceals

their deadly kick.They sashaywithin the lions rangeto stare them downas if they mean to sayWe see you so forget

your kill-by-stealth routine.

Off the zebras trotwhile the cats, long-tongued, yawntheir innocence.Such peace walksmay not rate a noble prize.But when you add theseto their size, surely

giraffe merit mentionin the Big Five.

And if you cannot pickwhich other animal to nix?

Just bump up the listto a Big Six.

Statuesque


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At Home in the ManyattaLife is simpleif not exactly easy

Each woman has her rolesa number before the title Wifebeauty etched by sun, wind, workonto face and hands and feet

Matters of subsistence leave choicebehind in burnt-orange dustAs for happinessno guaranteed pursuittamp it into one small gourdand carry it around.

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