THE FIRE OF LIFE

The lions in their dauntless pride,
Single file did slowly stride
Across the Serengeti Plain
In search of food that might remain.

The cubs of course, were doing bad,
With little milk they should have had.
They whined and stumbled all along
And now seemed anything but strong.

This was not the time of year
For the herds to roam from here.
It wasn’t dry enough as yet
To cause them any harsh regret.

But now the lions searched in vane
For the herds that searched for rain
Or what ever had spurred them on,
The lions hoped they had not gone.

A little here, a little there
But not enough to hardly care
For lions, lordly beasts of pray,
To live on well day after day.

Then a moment before the dawn
Returned a listlessness that long
Had plagued the lions every step
And as the lions stealthy crept

The sky of red and pink and blue
Lifted up in morning view.
The early dew so seldom seen
Glistened as an intrepid dream

But something else was not quite right.
It seemed the paleness of the light
From horizon’s widening arc
Had missed it’s usual set mark.

Not from western skies it rose
But to the south in wide repose,
The sight from southwest did intrude
To alter even lion’s mood.

The frightening chill of the night
Slowly lingered in it’s flight
And frigid winds from the east
Affected all the mighty beasts.

The hawks and eagles in their flight
Circled left instead of right.
Cape dogs shuddered in their holes
As if transformed by life to moles.

The earth trembled a bit at noon
And white shown the hollow moon.
Came the evening of that day,
All the land then seemed to lay

To a continent in flight
And try as all of mankind might,
The fears were such that any fool
Could tell the earth followed no rule.

A star shown above the plane
And while mankind watched in vain
It loomed each day larger still
Until the heavens came to fill

Then it’s brightness and strange beauty,
As though on a course of duty
Revealed, not a star my friend
But comet on it’s way to end.

Closer still it came to earth,
Speeding there, for all it’s worth,
To it’s end, to destiny
In that starry, heavens sea.

The moon slowed in it’s travel
As if then to unravel
The design that might have been
But now, may never be again.

The earth had shifted in it’s course
And with no sign of true remorse
This world, this earth, this place our own
Trembled at this sight unknown.

The beasts and lions knew not why
This fearsome thing, now in the sky
Had come to visit and be known
In this savanna, lion’s home.

Wild and crazed in their eyes
The lions roared in anguished cries
That screamed the torture of that day
And finally then, the lions lay

Released at last for heavens sake
Through no fault of their mistake.
Released from bondage in that place
And so did go the human race.

The comet streaked very close
And title waves from coast to coast
Cleansed the land both far and wide
While all the living creatures died.

Eons passed and mountains changed
And thrusting peaks made mountain range.
Volcanoes sprued across the land
And fed the seas with boiling sand.

The atmosphere became quite thick
With ash and steam to make it sick
That nothing of the earth we knew
Lived or moved or breathed or grew.

Then eons more and icy poles
Formed again on barren shoals
And brought the water back to earth
Then caused the sea again to birth.

Slowly in the ocean’s soup
The stuff of life held by group
Struggled in it’s ancient way
To form itself as it may.

And then those cells, one by one,
Some by chance, soon were done
And found their way side by side,
Some to see and some to hide.

Then slowly crept upon the shore
And soon there followed many more,
Tall or short and dry or slimy,
Some gigantic and others tinny.

Eons then again did pass
And evolution, of the mass,
Struck a cord of harmony
For nature surly loves the sea.

And there beyond the rise does burn
A fire to live and then to learn.
A fire born of brutal strife,
A fire which is.... the fire of life.

~Robert E Browne~