Working elephants

All the struggle and the hardship
The misery we feel
The true distress and misfortune
Its very very real
Man is never kind when working animals
Today
In the logging trade
The monsters
Really make us pay

We are hapless and ill-fated
For the slippery slopes we tread
Drag huge great hardwood trunks
We would be better dead
Its calamitous behaviour
We are stricken through and through
Despite our strength a plenty
Man just wants to screw

Us down torment us daily
Our vulnerability
Is working like the clappers
For an eternity
Everything is aching
Everything on fire
Hobbling and trembling
We really do feel dire

Man just takes his liberties
Exploits us makes us see
Suffering the torture
Why does it have to be
My back legs really suffer
My back and feet are sore
Hauling timber up inclines
It does rub my skin raw

Its flagrantly disturbing
They must know there is pain
They neglect to feel the agony themselves
But its a drain
Dismissed and disregarded
Disrespected too
Thoughtless and oblivious
To all we try to do

Its abuse its awful
No matter how hard I try
Still they give me heavier logs
I do wish now to die
Just fall down and be done with it
They violate my soul
They squander all my energy
And really they control

My mildness and my gentleness
A giant maybe so
I could crush this idiot
Really with one blow
Squash him into ignorance
Flatten him and see
His miserable face all bleeding
For what he does to me

I tolerate his mercilessness
Longsuffering am I
Humanity is finished
In the twinkling of an eye
No such thing as kindness
They pay lip service here
All this dragging of rough wood
Is making me fear

I have an obligation
To try and compensate
To try and help my owner
And hopefully create
A profitable conclusion
By my hard work
He can be
Richer and for that I get
Better food for me

The sadness is regretably
I get a rotten deal
I work my guts out day and night
Bleeding now its real
Suffering all the terrible pain
My arthritis it is bad
And instead of resting me a bit
He works me and I am sad

Really he is unworthy
So much disdain and scorn
Makes me really ask the question
Why was it I was born？
Despised and treated terribly
Spurned and left to be
out there in all weathers
Wet through and in agony