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Poem of the Month for January 2008 |
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Mopani *
by Sharon Black
The say that the Mopan! leaves
are shaped like wings of butterflies, fluttering from their branches
in the great Namibian Sky.
Their lines curve shyly inward
so that, once closed, you can hold
a scene ot burnt red mountains rising through the spyglass ot their hole
And as they tumble to the ground
to shelter in the midday shade,
clutching to their golden stems
which centuries have shaped,
I think ot the black rhino,
her awkward beauty riding high,
trampling through the bush
lik.e the night through sunset's faint goodbye
Later when she stops to rest,
her clumsy limbs sunk. deep into Mopani ground
her heavy head lolled in the hush,
I bend to pick a twirling couplet I have found.
And as I hold it in my palm
and think of all the blessings nature brings
I see that they are not a butterflies at all
but a pair of angel wings.
*The mopani .or mopane tree (Colophospernm,.m mopane) grows across Namibia. It has distinctive, wing-shaped leaves. The tree is a major food source for the mopane worm, a delicacy eaten by local people, roasted or dried. The tree's leaves are also eaten by the wild silk moth, whose cocoons are harvested to make cloth.
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