Absence of thought

The largest land animal living
Perceptive cognizant and brave
A pachyderm with a great stream
Of consciousness
In Kerala whose left to save
With an absence of thought
For their welfare
Its a cultural thing maybe so
But because they just are gentle giants
They are taken for granted
And show

Amazing resolve for the cruelty
Exacted on them everyday
Abused really, for no good reason
But with arrogance yes we can say
It Forces them out of their wild ways
And into the service of man
Who clearly ignores their real needs
On this planet
In reality he is no fan

They are abused as work horses
Little attention played to
Wants and their needs
They have arduous lives
Disregarded and neglected all day
Bullied really just to be bullied
There’s no insight they are just made to pay

Their great weight precludes them
From walking
On tarmac and concrete for they
Find their legs will break down
Made to walk into town
Discrimination we drown
These poor souls with so much regalia
Look at their sores feel their pain
Look into the eyes of an elephant
And dont let it happen again

Apparently a lack of reasoning
Its contentiousness which ever way
Just look at the way we treat elephants
Such intuitive souls yet they pay
The bullhooks are used without thinking
Sophistory seemingly high
Contrary to reason
They really get beaten
And many sadly do die

Religion regalia traditional gala’s
Its where they come into their prime
Dressed up in fineries mounted by mahouts
Its happening time after time
Unbelievable noise and confusion
Panic and woeful decree
These animals suffer complete purgatory
As Sangita iyer could see

She could feel all their pain
With her lateral thought
With the truest compassion
That ever was sought
She felt their conviction
She took it all on
And discovered that cruelty
Was far from gone

Where were the statesman
The guru’s the sage
This cruelty really was so hard
To gauge
There were sound minds
But apparently we
See elephants treated
Abominably

They have expectations, we all have
So why
Are these beautiful gods shackled
We try
With amnesia to blockout the truth
Of it all
We obliterate reason
And won’t answer the call

Dead eyes looking out at a world
Without grace
Wounded and battle scarred
Look at their face
Just feel what they feel
The shock and the pain
The cruel disappointment
How life is in vain

They are far seeing
Their prudence immense
Creative and lively
Ofcourse it makes sense
That all these wild elephants
Should be left out
In the wilderness where they belong
There’s no doubt

The world must affirm
Must express and must try
To STOP poaching ivory
We all must try
To influence everyone
That we all know
To protest their abuse
And let our great wave grow

Bull hooks and bloodied feet
Blind eyes that we
See beaten mercilessly
Its hard to be
Gentle and peaceful
With this going on
The voiceless may trumpet
But they will be gone

With the wind all their gracefulness
Melted away
Majestic magnificent in every way
They had such rhythm and symmetry
But we just ignored them
And now who can see

The magnificent herds
With their dramatic force
Their legitimate theatre
Straight from their source
They prompted respect
But we let them down
Ofcourse they were vulnerable
We let them drown

Habitat loss took away the desire
The ambush the canned hunting
Life became dire
Exposed to corporate peril and woe
The abyss they fell into
As well we know
There were danger signals
Arousals and scares
But we were all too busy
With our own affairs

Gods do have shackles
They bleed they are blind
They limp and they suffer
We steal their mind
We must all raise our game
We must all do our thing
Like Sangita is doing
Or it just will bring

The great force upon us
Extinction will be
The prize we shall win
For inactivity
Each of us really can do it if we
Put the elephants first
Before adversity

GODS IN SHACKLES
EUROPEAN GALA
SCREENING 7/10
At the Royal Geographical Society
1 Kensington Gore
SW72AR

Sangita Iyer