Just when he thought

He had been through,

That he had managed to procure

A dinner of a freshly killed flesh

For the cavern household crew,

In a twist of luck, without the slightest clue,

He learned that was not going to be true.

Gone on a mission,

Only where an adult was commissioned,

He spent three days away,

In search of a prey.

Wandering through the jungle,

With no one to talk to and mingle,

Except his own thought to jangle.

He felt if his effort were to come true,

As it had happened in the past,

Though not quite often,

Much appreciated it would be,

By those waiting in the cavern with their mouths kept open.

But most importantly, it would have, no doubt, washed away

The rue of a partner who had just delivered a baby boy

In the previous couple of days.

He thought to himself that when the search was over,

And at last, it was,

He would be back home soon as a conqueror.

Leaving behind the awesome jungle,

Where he knew not whether he was to kill or be killed.

The feeling etched in his memory -

Of indomitable terror

He had suffered

For fear of being devoured

By either an intrepid leopard,

Worse still, stampede by mindless

Herbivorous herds,

Or dragged still impaled on

The horn of armoured rhinoceros.

However, when the killing that was perceived was done,

And the journey back home had begun,

By the river bend,

He learned with a slight grim,

That a nice meal he had planned,

Was to remain just a dream.

Since he was away,

For many days,

This time round he was anxious,

To return back to the cavern,

Before the forth day turned dark.

So he decided and took,

A short cut by the brook,

Although the path unfamiliar it looked.

His warrior instinct muted,

His defence tools kept low and lose,

Down by the river bend,

When he tried to cross over

Red clay stained river,

Whose water level, it had appeared,

His ankles it could hardly cover,

His luck runs out,

When he relied on his barefoot

To stand on a stud of what looked a boulder,

A boulder whose hump then afloat, only to disappear,

When the ripples and waves increased in number.

Into the bed of the muddy river,

He had noticed countless boulders,

Rough and smooth strewed across the

River's length and breadth.

And he had felt that was it.

There was no need to immerse his feet

Into the mottled stream

And get wet, he could

Easily hop and jump

From one to another rock

With a warthog slung on his back.

However, to his surprise, no sooner

Had he reached the heart of the river

Than one of the boulders

He had his feet firmly rested,

Turned upside down

And showed its silvery breast.

And with a fling of a powerful tail,

The caveman was sent flying up in the air,

Just to come tumbling down

And rest assured on chest, he fell.

Agile as a warrior as he was,

He managed to ward off

The scabrous and somnolent carnivorous,

As he did the previous night

With a pack of wolves.

Once out of risk,

He then stood by the bank,

And heard the bones of the warthog cracked,

And the boulders all over, he thought he had seen for real,

Began to move and scuffle,

Sending seething babbles of air

As if the earth was tortured by tremor.

Add to this can be heard

He watched the formidable jaws,

Sharing the carcass clean and raw.

Upset at what had happened,

Clearing the muddy water soused beads of sweat

On his forehead,

Consumed in anger

He vowed and swore:

"Next time round, I will come

With a deadly weapon,

Some sort of a gun

And I will kick the hell out of you,

Shoot you I will,

While are still on the run,

Until you are dead and drowned.

I will! I swear I will!"

Years gone bye,

He did what he had said he would.

He killed all animals of the woods,

Except for few he left secured in the zoo,

To protect them against, You know who?

You and you, me and you and you.

Copyright Haileselassie Giramy

13/3/98