You are a man

Folding my legs on the carpet

I greedily devour my supper

Without saying grace

Then lean back touching my stomach

Full and proud

Beads of sweat appear on my forehead

I look on the patterns of my carpet

Like an emperor inspecting a vast empire

Like a god deciding the fate of unsuspecting mortals

.

A mosquito flies around my head

Reminding me incessantly;

You are a man

You are a man

You are a man

The Sleeper in the Plains.

In the scanted plains where dust blows

where smooth barked acacias cast rickety shadows

and thistle and thorny weeds thrive

It is a vast plain wrought with silence

_____

A jumbo Elephant lies on its side

with the back of its ear bathed in red mud

he sleeps with teary but hard shut eyes

stretched out on the thorny ground

silent on its red bed – gathering throng of flies

______

The piercing heat does not twitch his skin

nor the flies set his tail to task

He is having a nap like someone with a broken heart

Might take a nap – unmoving

He sleeps in the sun Tusk-less

There are two red holes in his snout