Rainy Season

by Annie Bien

blinds the savannah
blowing toward Kilimanjaro.

The horizon, streaked in dark diagonals,
drains to a yawning sun, coloring cloud
billows in pinks and orange.

Thomson gazelles have watched
undaunted
      as thunderous downpours
soak        their coats,
for so long as hyena
bellies stay round and taut,
unhungry for meat and bone,
      the grazers can walk with ease
      under morning shadows.

Wild elephants walk in a line:
a young baby trots in front
of his cautious mother—
      each turns when passing by,
      watchful of my eyes.

I turn the page
upon a theory of life created
by humans who sleep
      under man-made lights.

Indifferent
to my moods, rain
      storms
      and ebbs
and I inhale
the forbearing Earth.

Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Spotlight

The author took her inspiration for this piece from a visit to the Orphans’ Project run by Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. As one of Africa’s oldest wildlife charities and a leading conservation organization, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust has undertaken projects related to anti-poaching, aerial surveillance, providing water to wildlife, and helping injured wildlife. Its Orphans’ Project was the first elephant orphan rescue and rehabilitation program in the world. Elephants Never has made a contribution to Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in honor of this piece.

(For other organizations working to protect elephants and improve human-pachyderm relations, please visit our adoption page. – Elephants Never)

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Annie Bien is author of two poetry collections—Under Shadows of Stars (Kelsay Books, 2017) and Plateau Migration (Alabaster Leaves Press, 2012). For flash fiction: third place at Strands International Flash Fiction Competition, runner up at Faber Academy in QuickFic, and published in other literary journals. She is a translator of Tibetan Buddhist Scriptures for 84000. Find her online at http://anniebien.com.