Planet Earth Haiku

-derived from natural facts presented in the BBC Planet Earth series

 

Lakes of lava in

molten Ethiopia —

Hell’s ceiling on earth

 

Gobi desert snow

disobeys physical law —

Won’t melt in summer

 

K2, five miles high

Guardian of Shangri-La

Geese scale the apex

 

Hungry grizzly bears

Flip rocks to find Spring treasure —

Rocky Mountain moths

 

Cave mollies trip out,

breathing streams of delicious

sulfuric acid

 

Nests of saliva

Swiftlet eggs on high cave walls

Spit-shiny sconces

 

Wallabies dig holes,

lick their arms in desert heat

Coolest ‘roos around

 

Saharan desert

Toads on nightly pest control

Nowhere to hide, fleas

 

Death Valley cries rain

Dormant seeds rejoice and shout

Thirty-year silence

 

Red-billed Quelea

Like Serengeti thunder

Billions choke the sky

 

Polar bears starving —

Walruses circle their young

Seals off the menu

 

Be nice to oceans

Three fourths of our oxygen:

Diatom algae

 

On earth, without legs,

Most abundant animal

feeds the largest: krill

 

General Sherman

weighs as much as ten blue whales

Moby Sequoia

 

Andes flamingoes

Locked each night in frozen lakes

Ice cold knee socks

 

Swordbill hummingbird

Beak longer than its body —

Three foils when flying

 

Amazon jungle

Canopy vapor shower

Makes its own weather

 

Brazil jaguar

dines on quarry its own size —

Caiman crocodile

 

Costa Rican trick:

Fungi glows cool white at night

Spores hitchhike on moths

 

Desert Harris hawks

Birds of prey hunting in packs

Choice by necessity

 

Butcher Bird’s trophies

Mouse, vole, lizard, rattlesnake —

Cactus spine pantry

 

Mumbai city streets

Nightlife traffic squeal and snort

Leopards prowl for pig

 

-Hugh Findlay

 

Hugh Findlay lives in Durham, NC, and would rather be caught fishing. He drives a little red MG, throws darts on Tuesdays, reads and writes a lot, dabbles in photography and makes a pretty good gumbo. His work has most recently been published in The Dominion Review, Literary Accents, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, Bangalore Review, Burningwood Literary Journal, Wanderlust, Montana Mouthful and Dream Noir.