The Amazon’s Mouth

My machete cleaves the jungle vines
I know the jaguar’s close behind
Me as I run with clumsy dread
With jodhpurs torn, the field guide’s dead
Doomed and lost deep in the bush
My gun discharged, my breath is rushed
The nightfall’s near, pith helmet gone
I know I’ll never see the dawn
Still I press on to the South
For succor
At the Amazon’s mouth

I wheel and stare in purple dusk
A charging boar with bloodied tusk
Falls to the jaguar’s gleaming fangs
Where the bright aguaje hangs
I fear I’ll feel those claws before
I can confess my sins once more
Stepping back my heel meets air
Into the Rio Paru there
I’m swept away, to the South
The mighty pull
Of the Amazon’s mouth.

The rapids roil, I fight for breath
Whirlpools swirl and promise death
Alligators snap and fight
Fierce piranha dart and bite
I sink with heavy khaki tattered
Nothing really seems to matter
Soon I’ll join my poor dear Rhonda
Constricted by an anaconda
Limp and lifeless, drifting out
I’m gone, released
In the Amazon’s mouth