Phajaan

Often I speak of this and many
fail to understand just why
Humanity the profit seekers
Create great horror on the fly
Elephants great beasts of burden
Weighty lumbering giants they
Bear their tonnage with much effort
Built to live for many a day

Seventy years or so
They are plying
In the wilds they walk all day
Socially active splendid parents
Kindly souls in every way
Man the untamed arrogant soldier
Ignorant of the wild souls ways
Misunderstanding the elephant’s need
Bull hooks and a lack of praise

Working animals logging forests
Religious offerings in the street
Chained up subjected to drums and cymbals
To the ugly less discreet
Crowds that come to see the creatures
Ridden by the mahouts who
Call themselves the elephant experts
Sadly though it isn’t true

It’s based on ignorance
Bound with profit
Money grabbing Insensitive fools
The elephants seen as massive earners
Highly intelligent lots of rules
Steal the babies from the families
Kill the brothers and sisters who
Give honest guidance to their charges
Intelligence their whole life through

Torture is the scope of people
A crucifixion of each soul
Tie them up and beat them daily
Break their soul urge and reveal
All their aggression all their passion
All their love for wild journeys they
All the knowledge gained from their mother
Lost and wasted made to pay

A hell of a price in education
They become just slaves that’s all
To ride to work
at the beck and call
Bull hooks teach them
Their will means all
If they err they will feel the pain
Phajaan the way of breaking them
And elephant slaves join the great chain

We are cruel
No understanding
Of what it’s like to be wild and free
Money makes our world go around
We rule in fact so selfishly
We are top dog in the kennel
We are top fish in the sea
Animals are seen not heard
Phajaan is inexplicably
Humanity, a maddening curse
On wildness at its root
Never godly so unfeeling
As we advance we become the Brute