Above the rock-art rock
The hyrax has a view
Above the martin’s nests
Where little swifts come to rest
under the overhang.
Over rock-speckled hills that roll with reds and yellows
Brimstone canaries perch, conspicuous
against the dry rugged bush
Rocks morph into giraffes and antelopes, shapes too old
to make out
to make out
Abstruse
Like the copper belly of a cordon bleu orange from a dust bath
Confounding the amateur birder
Who startles
A half dozen prinia explode from the base of a tree and scatter
in arid hiding places
As an augur stops on acacia treetops
A euphorbia blackens against a dusk sky
As the bat-hawk glides in among the symphony of swifts
At twilight
above a sleeping desert rose.
