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Like a tower of graceful giraffes, Ethiopian
boys on bamboo stilts walk high over the land.
The boys smile; some have intricate designs
painted on their faces or long, straight legs.
Their aerial travel allows them to spot the cows
in high grass, avoid the bites of venomous snakes.
It makes me think of those who bend the knee,
smudge the line between right and wrong—
the bottom-lined CEOs, the well-endowed
university presidents, the media moguls,
the politicians and puffed-up agency heads,
the bonus-hungry citizens—
They look weak and cowed on the ground
among the vipers.
While Lynne Schilling has been writing poetry on and off for forty years, she began writing seriously four years ago at age 75.. She has published in Quartet, The Alchemy Spoon, Rue Scribe, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Lucky Jefferson and others. She has a poem forthcoming in contemporary haibun online.
