Saturday, 28 June 2003

WALKABOUTSVERSE 52 OF 230

Poem 52 of 230:  OUT OF PLACE

As I paid my bus fee
    To leave Nairobi,
A woman caught my eye -
    From what I could see
(Red garb, bead jewellery),
    She was a Maasai.

From anthropology,
    I’d heard how stubbornly
They try to defy
    Factors tending to be
Against them culturally -
    I like the Maasai.

Now, from my T.V.,
    News has reminded me
That space tourists buy,
    In order to see
Big-game roaming free,
    Belonged to Maasai.

They live nomadically:
    With stock, they go-look-see
To get enough supply
    Of grass - whose energy,
Converted, comes to be
    The life-spring of Maasai.

(C) David Franks 2003

A Maasai at Nairobi C.B.D.;
February 2014

A Maasai at Nairobi Safari Walk;
February 2014

Maasai at Bomas of Kenya; February 2014

Maasai by a Maasai - bought for my home