Blake gave them the respect they expected of him

Money and animals
Quite the anathema
Finding conclusions
And remaining strong
The wild ones
Are wild because creation
wanted that
They were the
The guiding lights
They did belong

Not in some circus
Nor cage
And no temple
All of these places
Apparently do
Create a scenario
A kind of illusion
Where tigers become
The prisoner too

The first dreadful moment
Is just after birth
A mother her instinct
She has a great worth
She is the cubs mentor
The cub has to be
With her for two years
Both need this, both see

Great value the foundation
The caring it must
Happen but sadly
That theory they bust
The cubs are withdrawn
In two weeks the bond
Is broken forever
As hope does abscond

They are wanted for tourists to cuddle
And feed
The cost of that service
Means the richer succeed
Cubs meanwhile
Pine for their mothers
They are sad
The real situation
Is they feel bad

The tourists imagine
Or let’s say forget
That babies need mothers
A human can’t pet
A tiger whose mother
Was taken away
buy into that realisation
Today

So these sweet little babies
With great deals of anguish
Are bottle fed daily
By all comers who
Thinking those tigers are needful of feeding
But that is unlikely
It just isn’t true

So we abuse the babies
And are cruel to the mothers
Their simple foundation
Is stripped clean away
That love of a mother
Is stolen completely
That is neglect and abuse
I would say

Tigers need red meat
Rich in the taurine
Building strong muscle
And limbs of great power
Tigers need exercise
Lots of it everyday
But confined on a chain
With their freedom the pay

Then comes a conflict
Wild animal husbandry
And a religion
One might stop to say
To do this job adequately you need to
Be dedicated
But wild feral cats
Chained up all of the day

Fattened with boiled chickens
Not good nutrition
They need the the wild living animal prey
They need to run down they need
This fervour
Sedentary lifestyles
Are just not the way

All around this place
There is barbed wire and fences
It’s more like a prison
Than a Temple some say
I have to agree this is sucking the life
Out wildness
And offering tigers that will
Lay around all day fat and indulged
To be sat on a stroked
And photographed still

The charge for admission
Is high and for getting
To be with the tigers
First you have to sign
If one should bite you
There is no claim on the temple
They bear no liability
For lives on the line

If you do have your own life insurance
I think it’s as well that
You talk to the firm
Tell them what you are proposing to do
See if they will insure long term

It is believed that these tigers
Were once monks
Reincarnations a nice thought no doubt
What a good reason to feed tigers chicken
And boil it first that seems now what it’s about
But they make the excuse that red meat
Is expensive
Despite all the takings boiled chicken
Is cheap
So they get boiled chicken
It keep the heart ticking
But deep in their soul
They will weep

They play in the water with bags
Tourists hold
On sticks is the exercise
That tigers fail
Otherwise to get
Walked around an enclosure
Or posing for pictures
Or dragged by the tail

122 tigers are living
In and around this place
And what we see
Is monks in their habits
Wandering quietly
And inside the temple
Chanting they be

You can cuddle a tiger
And share the monks breakfast
In a beautiful temple
Belief all the way
You can feel their remoteness
Cut off from reality
Sat in the lotus position
All day

Clearly these tigers raised in captivity
Will never ever be wild for they are
Conditioned by food and hordes of
Sad tourists
Ignorant tourists
Some coming from far
Forgetting the life force
They are kind of indifferent
Imagining really that them being there
Is somehow helping all the wild tigers
Those that are wild now living with despair

Tourists have been injured
Even hand reared tigers
Sometimes recall their roots
And do attack
It’s true they are fat and very unhealthy
How all this sits in the temple
The flack
Some throw their way
Just doesn’t phase them
They somehow imagine
Their premise is sound
Thailand is satisfied
Also that they
Are a real draw for tourists
The best one around

Now how do you make a wild tiger
Become like a kitten that
Lies on a rug by a fire
That instinct of centuries
Programmed by nature
In every cell
And all that desire
To run down the buffalo
The deer and whatever
And just lay around to be
Fed as they say
Boiled chicken of all things
It doesn’t make sense
On all counts it’s wrong
But it like this
It’s what happens every day

It’s a circus it’s reducing the wild
Soul down to
A dispassionate creature
Who forgets what to do
Its just a brainwashing
Their instincts destroyed
That’s so disrespectful
Of creation employed

And not really something
That I would expect
From religious offerings
Veiled with circumspect
To me there’s confusion
And disharmony
To me it’s chaotic
I can’t really see
How to unravel
The lines all seem crossed
In the beginning it’s the Tigers that lost

Much of their grandeur
Their status to rule
Their power and their strength
Overcome by the fool
Who exerted some power
We don’t really know
What power exactly
But has cut the flow

The wild ones are placid
They do what they are told
They live and they die
They don’t get that old
It’s far far removed
From the instinctive goal
And the monks apparently
Remain in control