One of the most elusive birds in Botswana was perhaps the most colourful. For a moment one perched a considerable distance from me, and using a new camera, which was far more skilled than me, I managed to take the amazing photograph below.
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For the briefest moment, as I raise the lens,
your black claws grip the dead Mopane wood
leg scales resting on the weathered limb,
purple striped cravat merging to waistcoat,
moss backed, cloaked in every shade of leaf life
splotched with hues of deep water
darker than the Chobe Forest winter sky.
A coloured whirl, then you have gone,
– but only in reality.
Your captured image perches on my screen
I almost touch the texture of your plumage
but the brilliance of your eye
avoids the hunger of my gaze.
