Caribou carousel

To a four legged Caribou
So many miles spent running
The gauntlet rapidly piles
On the emotion, the frustration
And the pain
For when they arrive
They must come back again

A terrible journey
With wolves and with bears
To eat them along with a good many scares
Its about subsistence and survival
For they
Know the reality
Or they will pay

They have to be grounded
Enduring it all
Its all about calving
And their inner call
They will run with the wolves
Who will run in and try
Its a great matriarchal event
And some die

Its about Northern Canada
And it skyscape’s so bold
Through huge finger forests
And real violent cold
They must find the calving grounds
All in good time
Its endless this dance
All the passion and rhyme

The adage that drives them
Is to run for their life
And the great Northern Forest
Presents its own strife
Its the females with antlers at this time
The males
Are lead by the matriarchs
Or all else fails

The great barren lands
Stretch far and beyond
They must run Through the snow
And always respond
To conditions
Over great frozen lakes
They must go
Where the wolf boys are waiting
As the caribou know

The air is alive with their howling
For they
Are excited to sample the
Fresh flesh today
They trail after them
Watching their every move
Such effective predators
Always in the groove

They run like a racehorse
These Caribou hordes
And have such endurance
Which brings its rewards
They show off their prowess
In each ancient dance
And run circles around wolves
And never by chance

Wolves never waste energy
Unless they know
That they can catch prey
They just will not go
They will look at them carefully
Singling out one that is not quite so fit
And aiming for that one
That ine they will hit

It be the dark season
The sun says farewell
Only the Northern Lights
Ramble and swell
Those magical greens
And blues in the sky
The wolves may not manage
To catch them a sigh

Of relief, for the caribou
That we can say
But the wolves have the patience
To wait and the way
Ahead it gets longer and dangerously so
The forest to feed
Is where the wolves can know

They can creep closer
Hiding in the trees
There will be chances
That just may now please
But the Caribou are up to it
And they begin
To run like the wind
Trying to underpin
The escape one lot go left
And one she goes right
The wolves follow her
She’ll be dinner tonight

You must run very fast
And you can’t make mistakes
The wolves they are hungry
They apply the brakes
They are excellent hunters
Thats what they do
And as I have said just bow
Its one dead Caribou

So the wolf pack
Will eat well
And they need to for they
Exist in the wilderness
Which is where all do pay
This time a Caribou
Next time a Bear
May be a wolf cub
With death they all share

The snow is much deeper
And feeding is hard
They must make holes and search
And of course stay on guard
They look for the Reindeer Moss
A lichen that
Will give some energy
But little fat

They need to find food
But not waste energy
Many are pregnant
As we can now see
Thrusting their antlers
Into the sky
The females are proud
Of themselves which is why

The males they will follow
Instinctively they
Know the matriarch energy
Its going to play
Out very well it has done so before
So all stick to the task
Of running for sure

Its already April
And the sun has returned
It hangs in the sky
Feeling concerned
The calves are all growing
The barren lands lie
The great arctic tundra
That stares up at the sky

They have a long journey
Keep going keep on
20 Kilometres each day
Out upon
This treacherous land
With its fast melting snow
As lots of green plants
Beginning to show

After the barren lands
Just the last stage
A great desert of snow
Right off the page
Up to the Arctic ocean
They go
To the calving lands
To give birth, for they know

Then comes the trip back
With babies so small
When they are born
Thats when they fall
Out onto the ground
They have to be
Ready to run
And ready to be

Up to the journey
And so birthing is late
It means its a pain
For the females
Who wait
Till this stage is reached
And their calves can then be
Ready to run home
As rapidly

For if they can’t run
The wolves will be there
The grizzlies too
To add to their despair

And so the big journey
They are ready to go
The calves must stay up
With their mothers, they know
If they get split
Thats it they are dead
They will starve or get eaten
Its their watershed

So off they all go
The great march is on
All of those miles
This time out upon
The journey with babies
Now all in tow
Some 50,000 babies you know

In a week os so the babies can run
They can out run the wolves
And so off in the sun
Some may get lost
And will die on their own
This is the natural world
We have all known

The rivers are frantic
That they have to cross
Flooded with ice water
And as they toss
Themselves into this maelstrom
So once again
Some will be drowned
Some will suffer great pain
The wolves and the bears
Might pick off a few
But most will get home
Because thats what they do

And they did they got back
And would be ready to go
Next year again
Being part of that show
The Natural world it eclipses
Man
For actually it is
All going to plan
We bugger it up
We always do
Hunting and trapping
And mining all through
Building roads and now fracking
We only destroy
Thats all we are good at
Just removing the joy

From this planet