Thandi and Themba

The absoluteness of existence
In their presence one can feel
All the potentiality
And what it does reveal
To the heart to the human spirit
To those who love them so
The positive and historicity
Intrinsically we know

They truly are immortal
Existing as they do
A reminder of prehistory
And how they continue
Each valued incarnation
So tangible so true
The Rhinocerus of Africa
Considerable and true

At Kariega Game Reserve
On the 2nd of March we found
Three friends of ours so brutally poached
Lying on the ground
They had been shot with tranquillisers
And machetes then were used
To hack off their precious horns
And how they were abused
And left to bleed out
In great pain
In pools of blood they lay
Two were breathing one was gone
How Can one find a way

Of seeing and not feeling
Those poacher men they must
Be evil to the point of unbelievable
Darkness thrust
These magnificent Specimens
Reduced to blood and gore
For a horn of basic keratin
We have to ask what for?

How can any human being
Lower their sights to this
Drag their vile insanity
To animals whose bliss
Is evident before their eyes
How can this be right
What low life could imagine
And do this in the light

Our hearts sank and our tearful
Eyes wept what could we do
To save them using all we had
We tried Themba a clue
He was in there fighting still
But bursting with such grief
Thankfully he was still alive
And clearly had belief

When you work with these animals
You just have to admire
Their resilience and their utter power
Their immense hearts of fire
This was indiscriminate aggression
On supremacy untamed
And we had to see them lying there
Their spirit still unclaimed

The trauma on a vast scale
With consciousness still there
THemba stood up clearly hopeful
One more he could share
And so the work of saving him
With antibiotics and care
And Thandi too we set to work
Everyone aware

It wasn’t going to be easy
But we all had a way
Of giving everything we had
To them now everyday
We had to help them through this
We had to give them more
If we could give our life’s blood
We couldnt have given them more

Then 24 days later
THemba went along
To the waterhole to drink
Fell in and still was none too strong
And drowned he drowned poor soul of mine
He fought hard but was weak
Slipped and fell a frantic spell
And died to frail to speak

Powerless then to right himself
Helpless in many ways
Flagging clearly overstrained
But worthy of great praise
He fought so hard to make it
He took on so much pain
And he was getting stronger
But it was all in vain

When we found him well it broke our hearts
We felt helpless thinking he
Must have reached a desperate place
When no one heard his plea
THandi on the other hand she
Got better she
Also became pregnant
With that possibility

Of a miracle of creation
Coming to us to see
To experience the elation
Of life on Earth and be
A great gift For a mother
Who had fought off such a scene
And got back into life again
As if she had never been

Under so much trauma
And what of course they do
Is leave and search for deep bush
Their independence true
Instinctively it happens
They have to go away
It’s what wild animals have to do
Fated so to say

She was chipped and that meant
We could find her we
Could go and try and find her
See where she could be
We knew it would deep bush
Probably far away
She a victim of the worst incident
To pay

That price she had to flourish
She had to seek a place
And go through birth alone
Provide a safe base
And when we traced her where abouts
Our eyes could feast upon
A beautiful calf a miracle
With all our sadness gone
And such a potent life force
And joyful energy
A kind of impetuosity
The kingdom of the free

A tonic for our spirit
So vibrant and so cute
Vigorously pulling on this or that
Sweet root
A gravity a magnetism
Flowing Everywhere
A catalyst for hope perhaps
And a story all could share

Out of the darkness and evil comes a bright flame
Of hope