EMOYA our African dream

We originally came from Africa
And were shipped across the sea
To Peru yes and to Colombia
To circus totally
Immersed in all that squalor
Beaten black and blue
Whipped and beaten with iron bars
And all of us were starved too

Circus is a vile place
A darkly place of woe
No place for any wild soul
The so called travelling show
Moving every single week
To another town and place
In trailers in the hot sun
Which serves often as a Base

It’s no home from home
It’s awful
No water no where to lie
Under a ho t sun burning down
Inside of course we cry
We cannot roar
We just cannot
Inside ourselves we weep
Contained in these cramped cages
Where we eat and sleep

Our sleeping hours are nightmarish
For we dream of course we dream
But being caged up every day
Is not what it does seem
No exercise to speak of
The food a rancid mess
The water often filthy
All we get is stress

And then of course our training
We have to do these tricks
Leap through hoops of fire sometimes
These dirty little pricks
Beat us scream and violate
Our kingdom with their pain
For a quieter life we do it
At least, then we gain

A little self respect Not much
But of course we ache a lot
Beaten about the body
Often on one spot
Bruised and bleeding
Where Sometimes ulcers form
But still we get
Hit and kicked and even flicked
With a cane and we are wet

From our own blood, very often
This is what they do
Day In Day our
night and day
Honestly it’s true
We suffer how we suffer
With no where else to go
Just take the rap and all their crap
And be part of the show

Our injuries are many
No veterinary comes
We limp into the circus
Broken teeth and gums
Bleeding from the experience
Kings of the jungle we
Are treated with out any respect
If only we were free

That’s the dream we all dream
To get out of this hole
To feel some sunshine on our backs
To be a wild soul
That appreciates the true light,
The grass beneath our feet
The smells of bush and jungle
Where life is so complete

The cries of other animals
The birdsong from the trees
A aanctuary where we can run
And walk and really please
Ourselves relax and do our thing
Be what we want to be
Not wrestle with the torture
And the evil that we see

JAn Creamer a name to conjur with
The director of ADI
We heard on the grapevine
On the pipeline in the sky
That they might come to rescue us
In some twilight raid
That pushed our heart beat higher
To leave the circus trade

The food was very rancid
And not enough each day
Sometimes we got nothing
How is that a way
Of keeping lions I ask you
Now can we all go on
Eating bloody carrion
This life is just a con

We heard about Emoya
In Limpopo far away
It would be a long journey
And take more than a day
Crated up and shipped by air
Over land and sea
It all seemed most exciting
If it could only be

LEo Munica and Africa
And Kiara we might go
To Emoya if we were fortunate
To leave the circus show
Be part of the shipment
Some 33 or so
Going to different places
In Africa you know

That great and fabulous country
Our birthplace it would be
Amazing if they could do this
Back in the old country
And well one day it happened
They broke us out and we
Were put in crates
For shipment
Over land and sea

We were fed and watered
And felt cared for for we
Were leaving South America
Forever actually
Flying off to Africa
To the great land of our birth
To feel the golden sunshine
And of course all that worth

The sanctuary was beautiful
Bush and sun and trees
And a freedom to do what we wanted
To listen to the bees
And insects and to look up
Right up in the sky
To feel the sun upon our backs
Or in the shade just lie

saved we were in Africa now
With our brothers also free
We can learn to roar again
Not weep and we could be
Playing stalking happy
To wake up with the dawn
And go to sleep when the night sky
Also takes a yawn

To share the realisation
Of freedom and to be
Able just to live again
To be in ecstasy
To use our sentient nature
To listen to the breeze
To smell the sweetest flowers around
That really and truthfully tease

All our olfactory senses
And to just watch butterflies
And ants around our toes sometimes
EMoya is a prize
To have been the winners reAlly
And to just be here to stay
Is a dream come true for all of us
For we love it more each day

A poem dedicated to ADI and to Jan CreamerAnd to all the volunteers and staff that makes dreams comes true

And to Emoya a sanctuary that creates paradise for circus lions

Thank you for all you do x

About Rex Tyler

I love animals. I enjoy writing poetry and delivering speeches.I like to mentor people who need help in preparing speeches and evaluations.I enjoy travel although it is much harder for me these days.I so enjoyed the Andes Mountains and Volcanoes and the Quichua people who live and thrive there.I have lots of friends around the world.
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