Mosi-oa-Tunya

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Mother and daughter stood atop the seemingly bottomless waterfall,

The mother wondered, “So breathtakingly gorgeous and also so tall.

No doubt she gets the latter attribute from her father’s side…after all,

…he and his three siblings were champions at volleyball.”

The two ladies marveled at the glory of the summer sunset,

They then smiled at each other as their eyes met.

The daughter looked lovingly at her mother to whom she had always been a pet,

The mother thought back to her own distant past that was impossible to forget.

‘Twas twenty-seven years ago on a dark and rainy Monday,

That the mother was told her health was going gravely astray.

Lung cancer tended to be like that when one so young frequently used an ashtray,

That the few remaining months would be debilitating as her body wasted away.

She had on that day decided to end it all with one leap from that same place,

Where mother and daughter now stood in a heartwarming embrace.

Just when that young girl with failing lungs was about to leap from that wet rock face,

She heard amid the crashing water’s incessant boom a howling wail…if only but a trace.

Looking around her she noticed that the cry came from the tress a few yards to the west,

Curiosity took over and she began walking towards the source of noise as she could ascertain best.

Her eyes fell upon a young man on his knees who was holding a gun to his chest,

His finger was on the trigger and he was howling like a raging tempest.

Not knowing a better way she picked up a stone and threw it at the fellow,

It hit him squarely on his temple and he fell to the ground with a sudden cessation of his bellow.

She then disarmed him and threw the gun into the thrashing eddies far below,

Watched in horror as the firearm shattered upon striking a rock covered in lichen greenish yellow.

When he came to he found a sweet but sad face peering over him with wonder,

He immediately cast his mind back to the moment he almost committed a terrible blunder.

Getting up; he began sobbing and told his tale of having lost his beloved to an accident Down Under,

Confessed that he was inconsolably dejected and that her death had torn his heart asunder.

For some odd reason she unreservedly shed tears with him and told her story filled with sorrow,

That if it weren’t for him; her remains would be floating like a rag doll to be found in the morrow.

Resolving to cure her of the ailment; the young man got to his feet with the alacrity of Señor Zorro,

They walked back towards civilization together and soon married at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro.

He sought the best doctors that his not inconsiderable fortune in diamonds could find,

She quit smoking and withstood five waves of treatment eventually leaving the dreaded ill behind.

In good time to them was born a daughter gifted with an iron constitution and a brilliant mind,

They christened her ‘Mosi-oa-Tunya’ in memory of the majestic wonder where they did each other find.