Van Cleave, Ryan G.

English

SWOSU Digital Commons (Southwestern Oklahoma State University)

Volume 21Issue 1 Fall/Winter Article 2811-15-2001Song of the Water Hole TruceRyan G. Van CleaveFollow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/westviewPart of the Fiction Commons, Nonfiction Commons, Photography Commons, and the PoetryCommonsThis Poetry is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals atSWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Westviewby an authorized administrator of SWOSU Digital Commons. For moreinformation, please contact phillip.fitzsimmons@swosu.edu.Recommended CitationVan Cleave, Ryan G. (2001) "Song of the Water Hole Truce," Westview: Vol. 21 : Iss. 1 , Article 28.Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/westview/vol21/iss1/28Song of the Water Hole Truceby Ryan G. Van CleaveA rank of impalas slake their thirst at the sun-cracked dirt periphery of this mud hole, where water bleeds from the deep.cool belly of the earth, dark and mineral-rich, still it wets their cracked lips. The stuporous heat of midday works straightto the bones, chews at the marrow, sucks the moisturefrom every bit of exposed skin. A trio of lions stride straight past,intent on their own thirst. Such are the truces of water, of water holes here in Botswana, the simple earthen heart of Africa.On the clay pans of the northern woodlands, trails lead like spokes to hubs that hold water, but pans, unlike the lagoons and delta,run dry, leaving only animals such as the springbok, which do not need water daily. The delta knows catfish that escape drynessof evaporating ponds by burrowing in the bottom mud, and it knows antelope escape predators by submerging up to their nostrils.Always close at hand, a wilderness so unfettered it can swallow a herd without a trace. So it ends, here, this day, as a flock of ibiswing back to their nesting grounds like ghosts at nightfall, their fish-bone eyes, for an instant, reflect like strobe lights,blips of white that, though vanished into dark, last and last.W E S T V I E  W 63

Song of the Water Hole Truce

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Song of the Water Hole Truce

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