Big

Carmi's photograph theme this week is "big."  When Ella was here in June, we visited Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, and she had the opportunity to feed a giraffe. I walked up on the platform with her, and standing close to the giraffe, realized just how big they are...big beautiful brown eyes, that long tongue that reaches so far to take hold of leaves, the long neck and legs.

Giraffe

A giraffe came by the willow tree
Stopped to gaze and talk to me.
For he was very lean and tall
A pillar, a column, a walking wall.

And as he looked down upon my face
His eyes were wide two pools in space,
As they engulfed, the countryside,
The sky above, held me inside -
Their special height and slant of things
Their special view of every thing,
And I could see by looking up
The wealth within his loving cup
That thinks and drinks the sun and sky
And watches us from way up high.

And yet I found it sad to see
That he could never reach down to me
For he was too tall, too much ideal
And I was too small, too much the real.

So, this angular figure, graceful and wise
Of astounding vision and cool clear eyes
Watched the sun rise, then watched it set
Looked down on me and seemed to forget
That I was as much a part of this scene
As the sun in the sky, the oak in the green.

Then the willow tree watching standing near by
Saw the distance between us and started to cry
she bowed down her head touching the ground
And from that day to this,
it's the way she'll be found.

Author Unknown