Wild animals are beginning to fight back

Of course, you know
all Elephants have good memories
and I am no exception, for I do
still remember vividly
how the man tribe
came with trucks
and quite a lot of crew

mother would have never ever
left me
from a tiny baby she was
always there
every scrape that ever I got
into
she was there to make me more aware

Migration routes, to water holes
and lush green food
always she knew, and so we knew too
but this day this dark dismal day
when the men came with their trucks
and we were separated
I know the whole thing sucks
I felt that dart it hit me
deep into my side
it really hurt,I was so stressed out
but my time I had to bide.

By the time I woke up
I was chained down heavily
We were driven
like the clappers
mother she
was gone
so now I had been caught
I was to be their prisoner
all alone was I
now tragically

they took me to a compound
stout posts and fences lay
both were very high
and I was not as big as some
but i could see the sky!

They fed me very little
almost nothing
honestly they didn’t seem to care
It seems to me I would never ever
see my mum
I mulled over that thought
with some despair
one morning bright and early
a cacophony, a rabble of the
raucous cries I heard
just outside the compound
where they kept me
vultures squabbling frantically
absurd
I know but it occurred to me
that possibly
something had just died out there on view
but actually I couldn’t see what was happening
and really, well I never really knew
some years later someone said
it was my sister, who died
But though I haven’t seen sight
or sound of her
it could have been that they
wild source had lied.

I was up against it
with no help sadly
they tried to to break my spirit
how they tried
I remember mother telling me
whatever happened in my life
never ever show them your true side
always leave them thinking
that they knew you
and one day you will get your
chance and then
you could really show them
what you were made of
in many ways that suggestion
a pure gem
I was put to work
clearing the forest
I had to push trees down
I kind of thought
this would really be excellent
training
and despite a lot of straining
I was very able, despite,, being short.

And one day I was taken to this village
it had a courtyard and big crowds were there
they dressed me up in all sorts of regalia
and sprayed me red
matting my fine short hair
I felt those bull hooks
enter me, I hated them
the men who drove those hooks
into me, they
clearly like the experience of hurting
and I was getting ready for my day
once a year Bull elephants get angry
a cocktail of rich hormones
change our being
and in my case sent me into a rage
“Must’n” it is called and I was good and angry
recalling mother and her kindly words
The bull hook buggers they were going to get it
they were going to fly soon with the birds

I threw the little git into the sunset
he ended up spread eagled in the dust
I picked him up and smashed him with a flurry
Expecting every bone he had, to be bust
my excuse was my hormones, but that cretin now had been
beating me for more than year
I was more like his machine
these men forget I’m 3 tonnes
and they are just 8 stones
if I want I’ll tear them
limb from limb, their moans
will be heard well half way across
the continent and that does make me feel
a lot better in side myself
that I can be so real

I smashed down a few fences
and thumped a truck or two
human beings are such creeps
they know what I can do
but they dole out their sickness
its sadly now in view
for we are getting sick and tired
and retaliation seems
to be the only method left
to create our own bad dreams
the guy was dead nigh
every bone was broken
he never regained
consciousness, I hear
Its possible he never
felt the agony
that I had felt
with his bull hooks in my rear

any other men who came to help me
respected me from that day on
and they
never ever used another bull hook
they smiled more and they patted me
okay
Now I’ve done a stint inside the circus
lost face there its true
but now I’m gone
Now I’m sitting in a peaceful sanctuary
sort of in retirement now upon
thinking and remembering the early days
following my mother and the herd
although I haven’t seen her
and I don’t know what became of her
I remember every single word

she ever taught me