MASISI

As many as 356 Elephants
Have crashed to the ground
And have tragically died
Botswana is mourning their loss
As am I
Why is it a mystery
Still far and wide

The bafflement really
The humiliation
As survivors we do feel let down
Yes we do
And MASISI we call It’s a shame you can’t hear us
Frustrated We all are and that’s surely true

A cruel disappointment
And regrets all around
Unfulfilled expectations
It’s something we have found
Upsetting that our leader
Feels hunting is right
And that Ivory sales
Are Not such a blight

The stools that you gave
Made of our relations feet
Namibia Zambia Zimbabwe
Your treat
for them possibly
But such an insult
We elephants suffering
From the result

The EWB said its clear
What they saw
So many of us
Dead on the floor
Disillusionment,suffering
Twixt the cup and the lip
We are dying in droves
Trip after trip

We are balked and are thwarted
Yes suffering so
As one after another
Our comrades they slow
They suffer we suffer
And still it’s his view
That hunting now
Would be a good thing to do

Shoot to kill poaching
Was not an idea
He wanted to see
That’s when a tear
Fell from each eye
In the Okavanga
So many friends
Are feeling the anger

MASISI our plea
In the rumbles you hear
We want you to move
For its now very clear
The prognostication
That something is wrong
Someone is at it
That doesn’t belong

In the delta this evil
Honestly you
Had best get off the fence
The need is to do
Something constructive
And change tact
Or we
Will lose more and more Of us
Consequently

It’s incomprehensible
Sat on your hands
We are not getting anywhere
We need to make plans
You need to stop hunting
Stop Attracting those fools
It’s not novel to slaughter
And we hear those calls

We feel the agony
The Delta’s alive
With misunderstanding
We need to survive

Mokgweetsi MASISI
For goodness sake you
Must extract your finger
And prove that you do
Love us and want us
Enough is enough
All the tribes
Live in fear
Botswana is tough

It’s not anthrax nor poaching
It’s not hunting oh dear
It’s none of the normal
But great shafts of fear
Fly in the face
Of so many who still
Walk in the wilds
Wanting you to appear

To give us some grace
To give us some care
When the mystery killers
Come by
Then do share
Your fortitude with us
We elephants we
Are living in fear
And we need you to be

On our side