MARKHOR (Screw horn goats)

Evolution presented
The rugged the mountains
Inhospitable places
In Chitral where they
The Markhor live out their lives
Foraging daily
On tussock grass and leaves
Making their way

Up high in the Summer
And back down in the Winter
Where the snow and the ice
Accumulates and
The winds how they threaten
Their crepuscular habits
Give them the freedom
To be on the land

As males they are solitary beings
The females
prefer to be in herds
Endangered they be
Wide expanses of blue
And beautiful mountains
The HIndu Kush ranges
That many can see

We hear though they are gifted
To ramble and live out
Their lives on these ridges
That certainly they
Are now being hunted
Importing the foreigners
Those wanting trophies
And are willing to pay

The realization of taxing
Those hunters
Coming from the US and the EU
Wanting a head and a pelt
To return with
Paying a fortune
Its what hunters do

For me such an animal rare
And really beautiful
Why are we abusing their creative gift
The burning question
Its really a sickness
From May through to September
If you get my drift

They go for the males
With the greatest trophies
An all in package
To tempt hunters to
Expect some good hunting
But its all loose thinking
Why kill the golden goose
When theres so few

Its all tunnel vision
Cliquishness bias
A jaundiced eye
Its really no way
To drum up some money
To support local people
And pay certain taxes
More of us must say

This animal represents
Pakistan truly
And by offering up
Such animals we
Degrade ourselves
Sacrificing the living
And importing abuse
Which does upset me

Creation bedecked them
In wonderful horns
And the evil of man
clearly makes a play
To exploit what was gifted
The truly iconic
give hunters permission
To take their heads away