Serengeti
My fellow wildebeests
So many colleagues
Grazing the Serengeti
Abruptly viciously
In the tall grass
I’m caught at the fringe
Of our obsequious herd
Now somewhat lame
Isolated taken down
By relentless lioness
Teeth plunge into my neck
Rip at my hide
Blood soaks the soil
Tell me was it
Our previous conversation
An imprudent memorandum
An unpopular opinion
Rarely a team player
I declined to tweak this or that
Committees failed
To relish my thinking
Outside the precious box
You smell my death
You merely watch
From a wary distance
Visceral instinct your
Indifference is survival
Predictably vultures gather
To keep me company
To pick at my bones
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David Sapp, writer and artist, lives along the southern shore of Lake Erie in North America. A Pushcart nominee, he was awarded Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Grants for poetry and art. His poetry and prose appear widely in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Asia. His publications include articles in the Journal of Creative Behavior; chapbooks Solitary Nature, Cardboard Pleasure, and Two Buddha; a novel, Flying Over Erie; a book of poems and drawings, Drawing Nirvana; and two books of poetry and prose, Acquaintances and a memoir titled The Origin of Affection, winner of the Violet Reed Haas Poetry Award.
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Stone Poetry Quarterly 