Like Kipling's 'Just So Stories', but briefly, this poem asks Why? two of our favourite African animals evolved as they did. The poem also aims to evoke magical misty landscapes, and be satisfyingly 'poetic'.

REACHING

Dawn lies golden over the grassland.
Out-stretched shadows welcome the days.
Massed in the mist of the waking land,
Animals float in the pearly haze.

Like islands, wreathed in wispy silver,
Clumps of trees reach for the sky.
Roots drink deep while water’s still there.
Juicy foliage tempts on high.

Graceful giraffe and hefty elephant
Shared one problem: how to reach;
Find solutions, clumsy or elegant;
High and wide, grasp food for each.

Across the swaying, sunlit grassland,
Giraffes in patchwork, camouflage stains;
Browsing, gossiping, there they stand,
Necks erect like working cranes.

Elephant grunts as it humps and heaves,
Lumbering grey like a walking boulder;
Coiling trunk among the leaves;
Throwing the remnants over his shoulder.

Green retreats from the dry savannah.
Rains are over. Brown returns.
Herds move on, in the age-old manner.
Hot air dances. Empty noon-day burns.

Trees still proffer their deep-drunk greenness.
Animals browse in the welcome shade,
Following slowly. Waters may stream less
But nature’s stratagems are still well-laid.

Trunks and necks among the branches
Extend the reach of nature’s chances.