Ms. Ida Standley
flinty with resolve
first schooled
the mulatto castoffs in Alice
till the attentions of leery townsmen
dogging her female charges
drove her bulwark westward
to Ray's Creek
near the chasm
the namby magma stretchmark
once extruded through quartzite
worn now down to naught
great Australian orogeny
and misogyny alike
bowing to force of nature
leaving the base cleft
The lesson from history and nature is
adapt and survive
It is roots in rock
eking spare moisture
from minute fissures in time
to pry the jagged jaws
too thirsty yet to ever stand
closer than several cracks apart
It is fleshy welwitschia
named mirabilis
reputed to live
two full millennia
with just two leaves and
elephants about to shred them for dinner
The lesson from history and nature is
to love the feast
to love it fully
to await it humbly
to expect it
never
Palmweg Concession, Namibia
December 2013
first published on salt.org.sg
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