First published in Academy of the Heart and Mind on February 20, 2023

By Douglas J. Lanzo
Copyright 2020

From atop a hill forged from
volcanoes birthed in prehistoric times
from the wombs of the Great Rift Valley,
a vast savannah sprawls
before my eyes as they squint into
the soft amber light of dawn;

It pours its radiant warmth into
the canopies of acacia trees,
green martinis turned upward in greeting —
imbibing the sun’s rays into its branches;

Below me, receding like a dream
 into surreal realms of fantasy
stretch an oasis teaming with exotic life,
raw and primordial, unfiltered by time,
undaunted by man;

As I gaze across the land in a near trance,
I behold herds of graceful gazelle
with lyre-shaped horns
tranquilly grazing on green grasslands,
seeming to play a melody
that threatens to lull me into
 a catatonic state;

Across the tree-dotted grasslands,
a cantering herd of zebras
cast guileful illusions upon my eyes,
appearing to merge magically
into single shades of gray
before shifting into patterns of black and white;

Just as I am about to drift
into an enchanted sleep,
I am struck by a cacophony of sound,
beholding a crazed herd of blue-sheened wildebeests
leaping desperately into the Mara River ,
forming a great curving swath as they fight
its currents, before fording its embankments
and roaring across the savannah ,
creating an earthquake of vibrations;

An agitated trumpeting call abruptly pierces my ears,
momentarily drowning out the steady rumbling of the wildebeest herd – –
a frantic call from a distressed mother elephant to her baby,
who wandered off into denser brush,
oblivious to the approaching danger camouflaging and concealing itself
in the tall, wind-blown grass;

Suddenly, a lioness huntress emerges and
springs toward the baby elephant,
lunging into his body and snarling as it
viciously latches onto the head and ears of the baby elephant;

Another lioness quickly joins the attack,
slashing the trunk of the overmatched baby elephant as it
wails for help and writhes in pain;
 furious, the mother blares her warning as she
charges toward the lionesses wielding deadly tusks…

I lose my balance and tumble to the ground,
bracing myself from impact,
jarred physically and emotionally
by the epic battle unfolding before me;

As I clamber back to my feet,
I hear a whirring sound
and the hilltop seems to rotate faster and faster,
swirling me into the unknown…

As the turning gradually slows,
I hold out my hands,
as if bidding the world to settle before me,
before partaking a fantastical view below,
filled with fearsome creatures never seen in modern times:

Dire wolves, giant ground sloths, huge bison and
massive bears roam the grasslands beneath me,
a stunning backdrop to the most terrifying battle
I have ever witnessed:

Bellowing with rage,  
a mother wooly mammoth charges
toward two saber-toothed tigers
as they savagely attack a baby mammoth,
striving to clamp their foot-long incisors into its tender throat;
 
The mother mammoth swings her curved tusks toward a tiger,
causing it to leap from the tiny mammoth,
roaring its displeasure;

Meanwhile, the other tiger knocks
the baby mammoth to the ground,
snarling as it readies to inflict its final blow —  
thrusting toward the tiger;

The mother strikes its flank with the blunt edge of its tusks,
momentarily stunning the tiger
while the mother raises her massive front feet and
 mercilessly tramples the stunned creature,
causing the other tiger to flee into the underbrush…

Adrenaline surges through my body,
my head pounding as I reel backwards,
before leaning my head forward to balance my body,
lest I tumble down the rocky hill to an ignominious fate;    

Momentarily steadied, I survey the landscape — 
spotting buffalo, rhinos, impala, zebra, wildebeests,
a wounded but recovering baby elephant and its mother,
two retreating lion huntresses and
three figures racing through the grass,
clad in bright red robes,
adorned with beaded necklaces,
brandishing spears;
 
They encircle a fierce, maned lion as it roars, 
its eyes burning with the fires of its ancestors; 
It lunges at one of the warriors, who thrusts out his spear, 
but cannot beat back its fury, falling to the ground, 
his shoulder exposed to the ravaging beast;
 
Another warrior launches his spear at the lion,
piercing its flank and
causing it to unlock its claws
from the shoulders of the injured Maasai; 
the third Maasai warrior approaches the lion
with his spear poised to strike…

My vision moves in circles, slowly,
then hastening, as I lose my bearings and
wipe my sweated brow with
the back of my hand,
and take a deep breath;

A hand gently taps my shoulder and
I find myself gazing
into the concerned eyes
of my Maasai guide.  

“Everything OK?” he asks.
 
I quickly look at the scene below,
observe no death-battles for the moment, and nod.
 
“Good,” he answers with a smile, pointing to a waking Cape buffalo. 
“Let us enter their kingdom with joy and reverence.”