I raise my head up off the red dirt ground
To watch the fiery sun go down.
Where once I would sleep soundly in the black depths
To the lions roaring sound,
If we heard the comfort of branches snap and crackle,
We knew the big eles were around.
Now no leopard coughs, no jackal yelps, no hyena sarcastic laugh,
Awake, I cannot lay me down.
All around the vacant silence disturbs me,
This empty silence is not a natural sound.
We climbed the rocky koppies to search in vain,
Where once the great migration filled our gaze.
The scorched ground now barely fertile
Where the blood and bone decays.
There the scant grass grows the sweetest,
Cattle scatter skeletons to graze.
The curse of the charcoal-burners
Infesting the horizon with their smoky haze.
Gone are acacia-thorn and spreading shepherd trees
Under whose shade umbrellas we would laze.
Once we could look across the savannah,
Where the massive herds would parade.
The bribery for trophy permits we would pay
Far more than we would ever dare to tell.
We sent the big tuskers to their grave,
Rhino, lion, leopard - Ah, what the hell!
Anything in our way!
Oh, the hyena and vultures prospered swell!
Now within my massive halls so heavily adorned,
I brag, my courageous tales I tell,
My walls covered with those rare horned,
I got them before their last death knell.
Therein, I rest and slumber oh, so well!
http://www.all-creatures.org/hope/anti-th-20080320.htm
6 comments:
You bring me to tears...
Eloquently written. Thank you Jim for opening our eyes to the sad realities in Africa with your poignant poetry. Frankly, it is a part of the world that we don't know much about in my country.
the poem is so true to realities that we often neglect to realize. the more we realize, we can save them and balance our eco-system.
a wise way to spread the awareness to keep them alive.
Man is the most beastly beast.
-PORTIA
Man is a horrible virus on this world at times. This is a apt and sad post. Thank you for keeping us aware.
Lovely poem Jim, really evocative.
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