Juice Online Poetry & Art
                                                       Publishing since 1970		cover art for Juice online 2007 cd
2008
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Many of these poets have Books. Find them at Amazon Books: Just type in their names.
 THE RHINOCEROS


At first
the mother rhinoceros
tolerates
the calf butting her belly.
To the calf,
her thick underside is shelter
and from her teats always
comes milk.
But
as days pass
no longer
will she allow
the impatient gnawing.
Now
they must walk
side by side,
a distance is between them.
But
should a hyena or lion
tease, taunt the babe away,
then
the earth shakes, a dust cloud is raised;
the impaled foe
is tossed away
by a backward thrust of her horned head.
The calf
creeps under her bloody snout.


Months pass
and another
calf drops to the ground from her womb.
Should the older brother
approach his mother,
she will charge at him.
He, wounded,
head bowed, grunting,
wanders away.
Never
do they travel far,
and finally
years later
he will pass by her
(her hide peeling off her bones)
and shove the debris aside
to eat the grass.



 Richard Fein