THE BRIDGE AT TSAVO, 1898
"Descent approaching now," the guide had said
perched familiar to the hunching train.
Steam obscured valley and track, dead
tangles glimpsed forming patterns like pain
housed in the far-off smoke where toil
channels extension of an awakened skein
to bridge two worlds. Hours it has taken to join
the work camp, passing walls of thorn
in which the animals blink and turn, avoid
confronting the mys