Serengeti Pilgrimage by Jane Richards

Twenty one elephants process
single file across the endless plain;
mothers, offspring,
and their priestess--

tallest in stature, long tusks brushing dry grasses.

Twenty one elephants approach

the stream with ceremonial dignity,
wrinkled skin the ancient vestments of their kind.
Two teens turn to spar, short tusks locking--
an elder’s trunk nudges them on.

Twenty one elephants crowd
at the bank,
a family at table,
heads nod, ears flap,
trunks sway in slow dance.

For this timeless ritual,
twenty one elephants unroll their trunks,
glide them to the river,
the young stretch, kneel to reach the surface--
all in reverent silence
but for the splash
of precious water.



Jane Richards is a piano teacher with an intense interest in writing and nature. She has a masters degree in creative writing from Columbia College, Chicago, and has published poetry and non-fiction works in Snowy Egret, Rosebud, The Plum Tree Tavern, The Weekly Avocet, and Bird Watchers Digest.