The Magic - A Poem by Mrinalina S.W.

Inspired by her safari, Mrinalini Sisodia Wadhwa, a Grade 10 student from India, sent us an emotive poem that has captivated us all. On her last night at Savuti Camp she read her poem around the campfire, enchanting all our guides and camp staff too. Thank you Mrinalini for sharing your life-changing wilderness experience so beautifully.

The Magic

By Mrinalini Sisodia Wadhwa 

03.27.2018 – Savuti Camp

There is a magic in the forests of Africa.

It dances in the purple heavens, upon the setting sun;

It tiptoes around the delicate petals of the vernonia,

Nimbly dodging bolts of lightning once the rains have begun.

 

It signs with the frogs in the Linyanti River, near flower;

It illuminates thin blades of finger grass in the black night;

It climbs the brush and scales the trees that tower over the little bee-eater, hidden in plain sight;

I can still hear it now, for it sings to me:

It sings beautifully, mournfully, asking to be remembered – As if I could ever forget its indelible melody –

Woven into the star studded sky, for tonight and forever.

But, Africa, what are you saying,

In the crickets tune,

The frogs’ symphony,

The birds’ song?

Is it a lament?

Is it an elegy?

For I often wonder what went wrong –

How could man not believe in your magic?

How could they burn down your bush and carve your rhino?

How could they take your innocents across the ocean?

For, in your sparkling eyes,

I see, sometimes, the waters of the middle passage

That must have sparkled openly under the bright sun –

And how could they work them to their graves,

With the progress to be made and wars to be won?

Oh, when I think of those times,

Long gone but little forgotten,

You amaze me

Because your words are greater, I think, than what we – indeed, what I – might say if we were you:

We would dwell on old enemies and lost brothers and sisters,

Bitterly cursing the wicked past.

But you? You proudly sing of a better present,

Steadily praying that this peace would last.

To those who still question your magic,

I have little to say but this:

When your people’s smiles light up the sunrise,

And their ancestors’ stories colour the sunset,

What for centuries, defended their humanity?

And what, if not Magic, can bring such bliss?