Phajaan (The breaking of the spirit of infant elephants by Thai and Indian peoples)

In animals rights terms this could
be one of the worst I’ve heard
and its carried out on infants
of the breed
which seems absurd

what occurs is capture
then caged tightly
their legs tied
and then chained to the ground
and fixed there in one spot
we really have to wonder why
these baby elephants
their hearts abound

with lovely tender thoughts
and wild ambition
torn from their mothers
and now holed up here
stuck fast they are unable to really move
at all
that’s when a so called spiritual man
suddenly does appear
l
positioning himself upon its back
almost as if to ride
and in that moment drives
a steel spoke right down deep inside
the elephants head
imagine that
the pain and the surprise
that such an act
can you imagine that
it kind of flies

in the face of everything
a spiritual man might do
its then that tears leak from its heart
and it begins to rue
the day it ever came to be
for couldn’t it have been allowed
to perhaps just be a spirit
in some place where it lay showered

in moon dust or in pollen grains
and quietly spend its hours
peacefully resting in some hollow
in amongst the flowers
instead it has been drawn into this
maelstrom of a place
the spiritual man is praying
isn’t he a disgrace

a sycophantic ass hole
whose heart is clogged and hard
who hides behind a mask of hatred
always on his guard
“if you cease your rantings
if you quieten down
then your pain it will subside
and you can wear our crown”

remember this frightened animal
has a steel spoke in his head
the pain is worse than terrible
his eyes are burning red
his spirit wants to show
his captors he will not just lay
down and be so tortured
foir it is not his way

without a fight and so
for 3 to 6 days various
people hammer nails into
various parts of his body
its what the cold hearts do
its evil, its reprehensible
and yet of course its true
the torture goes on tragically
with no let up what they try
to do is break the spirit
of every little guy

the torment so apparent
no infant should ever bear
this kind of vile behaviour
from those clearly so aware
Phajaan continues
that’s when villagers
join the affray
throwing stones
that bruise and cut
and tear his strength away

and then they raise the bar a bit
no water and no food
and then they don’t allow him sleep
it is so very crude
that is when he comes to terms
with how they treat him
and how he feels
he screams up to the heavens
he trumpets, he appeals

to every wild soul everywhere
the wind carries his cries
hoping to reach his mother
across the many skies
the villagers come and laugh and jeer
some spit on him and he
feels as if he’s nothing
short of perhaps a memory

he shakes, his body weakening
the terror setting in
uncontrollable bouts of diarrhoea
stain his aching skin
in his own blood and excrement
broken now he stands
many die before this stage
but he has other plans

his spirit has been broken
submissive may be so
but his memory is always there
and that will never go
he identifies his torturers
he can now recognize
and will possibly repay them
and help them to realise

to suffer for their folly
there’s a price they have to pay.
karma is a penalty
that does not go away

Thailand and its people
have to understand that they
have no right to use cruelty
just to get their way
the wild one’s have their place
and shouldn’t ever face this wrath
they were born to wander
and teach that was their path

where creation left them
and so for man to do
what man has done to elephants
and others does accrue
karma has been growing
and the interest rate is high
and for exacting so much agony
some will have to die

and die they will
and suffer, they will
for mote it be
what we cause to happen
we pay for, eventually

the cruelty in the crudest form