The vanishing Lions have all but vanished

My love affair with lions
Has taken quite a hit this week
The three online musketeers
Slaughtered in a pique
Of frustration over predation
Poisoned and burned I heard
So as to remove the evidence
Of the crime that had occurred

It took place in Nambia
Near Tomakas village where
The villages livestock were in kraalls
And a Lion Guardian was there
He Had been trained to help withi
lion attacks
And so to hear these three
lions had all been slaughtered
It really sickened me

Watching the film the Vanishing Kings
Brought a tear or two to my eyes
How their father had been murdered
And how their mother dies
17 years old and still trying
To hunt so her boys could
Really keep the pride alive
Her nurturing was good

In helping to hunt a big giraffe
She had fallen badly and
As time went on her aching muscles
And the Swirling sand
Took its toll and she closed her eyes
Weak as weak could be
Drawn into the desert sand
For all eternity

She really and honestly worked at life
She would never know
The boys had to be on their own
It was hoped that they could grow
Into marvellous hunters
After the females left
But tragically the human beings
Leave Africa bereft

All of them bar one
Have perished all of them are gone
All the promise all the care
It just cannot go on
So many must be beside themselves for certain
There is no way
Back for this young family
Who all ,let their lives that day

Now realise the timing was adrift apparently
They were all for relocation
But it was not to be
Only the remaining brother
Has been moved away
Witnessing their charred remains
What was there to say

We knew there would be challenges
But these boys seemingly
Were going to be the future
All males, all wild, all free
Three years old and coming on
Supporting each other well
Sustaining their coalition
At that juncture things looked swell

They were learning and experiencing
The rains the floods the strain
They were working at their hunting skills
And we all could see the gain
A free nomadic roaming life
To make their impression in this World
This ancient desert landscape
Where all of them had been hurled

To learn to use the landscape
The vast and shifting sand
Their camouflage was perfect
They could be kings of this land
But up against those human beings
Who possessed their guns
They really didn’t stand a chance
But They were their mothers sons

And Because she had stayed with them
And helped them all the way
They very clearly missed her
And who knows why they did pay
Such a high price in all of this
No doubt we all may learn
But poisoning them and setting them alight
Has to concern

All lovers of wild animals
All carers everywhere
And whoever actually did this
In a moment of despair
They had no thought whatsoever
For those Lions and their family
And no thought of their country
That is what I see

It all comes back to selfishness
And money in the bank
That antagonism really
In reality it’s rank
It’s eating up inside of them
They really fail to see
The Iconic lions and their place on earth
And where they ought to be

There are many individuals
Giving their time to try
And help all the wild species
Underneath the sky
And then the animal rights brigades
All over planet earth
Giving their time to helping them
There is a lot of worth

And then one hears these stories
Of servility and pain
One thinks of that old mother
Who almost went insane
Helping them to hunt and learn
The craft before she died
And all of her sweet efforts
Really they have been denied

poachers Hunters villagers
Their haughtiness is rife
Their disrespect of Nature
Causing disdain and such strife
So they can pull a trigger
And stand their with the dead
So they can show their ugly mugs
On Facebook I see RED

They talk up conservation
Swagger on the street
Basically they are charlatans
And many are the elite
The royalty the hangers on
The lords and ladies who
Haven’t done a days work in their lives
A lousy crew

Who exist in their own stateliness
Floppy dressy clowns
Designer this designer that
Even their hunting gowns
Of camouflage of so swish fabrics
Looking quite the part
Who come to murder animals
But who haven’t got the heart

To realise the importance
Of wild animals to us all
How they shape the environment
How they all walk tall
No crush them smash them shoot them
Nobility my arse
I hold you all in disrepute
Your charade is all a farce

These lions were very special
And someone’s head should fall
The vanishing kings have vanished
In that wilderness now all
Have left and there is no legacy
It’s lamentable to say
Arrogance and ignorance
And a cretinous display

Has seen off the great Musketeers
To the Rainbow BRidge they go
Get your heads around all of this
And when you are alone you will know
The wastefulness the priceless gifts
Of Nature that we destroy
We are asinine and pointless
And will never find true joy

Of the kind those Lions had
That bond that man saw fit
To break to slake, man is the fake
An obscurantist twit
If he could look beyond his nose
Beyond the village fence
And realise what Africa needs
Is the lion and common sense

I was, moved by this story
This lovely family
Beaten back by ignorance
And lost to eternity
The futility of all of this
The uneducated state
The unconsciousness and naïveté
And I feel I must berate

Those goons who did this awful thing
Who thought it through and knew
They had to poison these three Lions
It was right to turn the screw
Then burn their beautiful bodies
The collars that would be
Evidence of their darkest deed
And their insensitivity

There are a lot of broken hearts
Out there I know today
What will be no one can see
And few around can say
That the wild Lion has a future
For the evil clan abroad
Are killing them like crazy
And enjoying their reward

M