Buaban and Boonmee

45 years and 85 years of age
2 elehants, they
each have worked their butts
Off every single day
Slaving in the hot sun
Logging chained up they
Suffering the bull hook
For thats the common way

Wild elephants are captured
And broken in phajan
Are up against the obtuseness
Of the human who because he can
completely bully these amazing beasts
On the logging hills
Very dangerous conditions
And a constant clash of wills

Prisoners taken advantage of
Until their mental state
Is shot away and broken
As is their parlous gait
They get injured and neglected
Fed on the poorest food
Bull hooked if they show dissent
until they stay subdued

Riding on the elephants
And watching elephants draw
Or doing tricks in circus
Fir them its like a war
These huge great beasts
Show so much restraint
They have to or they will
Get beaten up and theur lives cut short
And its like this well until

They die, these totally social creatures
Great matriarchs who should
Be leading a great herd of friends
Which of course they would
If it wasnt for so called man kind
Who absolves himself from pain
By taking it out on these beautiful souls
Who give and can never gain

These two friends were recently
Given sanctuary
Collected from an elephant park
In Surin not a place to be
From the Mun river to the Dangrek Mountains
This place in the North East
Is where there is an elephant park
A place most do like least

LEk the famous Lek with her huband Derek
In Chang Mei
Have the elephant sanctuary
Which is the reason why
Both elephants both lovely friends
Have been purchased so that they
Can come over to the sanctuary
And pass their time away

BOON MEE for 85 Years
Has sweated through a life
Been a slave to the human
Her every day such strife
All those Laborious hill climbs
Tugging and heaving trees
Its ugly bruising awful work
As the world at large agrees

And so now loaded in their trucks
A new mahout in tow
The road trip back some 20 hours
The Black Tusk Film you know
Being made so part of this
Two old friends they be
Given the gift of freedom
From what has been adversity