Cook's Delight

For 22 months I've carried him
and now his time has come
He falls onto the dusty plain
heart beating like a drum
He wobbles, trying to find his feet
no synchronicity yet
and we quickly find a watering hole
where everyone gets wet.

our skin is thick and sensitive
and the U V Light can harm
so its good to swish some mud
around, for really that does calm
My calf who found my nipples
and loves what I provide
25 pints of creamy milk taken
down inside.

He knows also to take some poo
my pre-digested stuff
My baby likes to eat it
for there's nutrient enough
I only get about 6 hours of shut eye
when its hot
So I flap my ears creating a breeze yea on the spot

As the days pass, my calf totters
forward and backwards, He
Will have to fall and then get up
and follow frantically
all the other ladies of the herd
will gather round,petting him
and letting him play on every sound
Weve all got excellent memories
once seen we don't forget
I'm encouraged by the wisdom and emotion
and I'm set.

fair with my dear
baby, my column legs support
My 8000 kilo body, like pendulums in short
The matriarchs our guardian,she shepherds us
around
She an experienced elder, and her theories
does expound
We dig and root,our splendid trunks are a very useful means
of communication, and occupation with the strength of some machines
we can run from 8 to 20 miles per hour
possessing pluck
and can out run any Bull around who comes
to try his luck

Our structural Social order where all the females stay
in close knit gait which really helps
and keeps the calves at bay
with an average, 5 kilo brain, we can hear a scampering rat,
smell an old hyena
and coordinate like that!

The eyesights not sensational but I know
most leaves are green,
its true I don't see far ahead
but I know where I have been
When a crowd of us are a'rambling,
we tend to create, We
Knock a few trees over,and eat incessantly
Only about 40%, is digested its a shame
the rest comes out the other end,
looking about the same
way that it went in, and so our need to eat and eat
we like to browse for hours and hours
on our great big padded feet.

barks and fruits and grass and herbs
about 4 hundred weight
and habitat destruction at an alarming rate
and all those awful Poacher men
with fire sticks and lead balls
when they come up to us and fire
tis then yes someone falls

the graveyard then is visited
we pay our last respects
they kill us for our ivory
and this business does vex
what it is, about them
you humans why you need
To take us out
and cut away our tusks
based on real greed

its such a waste
to slaughter us
Because we're so like you
50 - 70 years we walk this earth
Oh! yes we do
we growl,we blow our trumpets
and we do use infra sound
which is sub sonic and
moronic and rolls across the ground.

Through the National Parks such places
where some Rangers do the rounds
But the Poachers still come tragically
which is worse now than it sounds
we can then end up in circuses across the USA
or working in Laotian forests slaving everyday
at the moment we are fortunate
wild and full of zest
but any moment, the surprise
trapped and going West.

We love the swamps that swallow
up our calves all grey
a writhing mass of wrinkles
to pass the time of day
and when the night clouds hover
I remember those who fell
who took a bullet through the heart
from those Poacher men from Hell

I have seen that cold stare in their eyes
and remember 2 or 3
and I'm ready for them
if again any of them, I see
I remember when the forests
were lush and full of trees
and very few young humans but now
they seem to squeeze

into almost every clearing
Their huts are everywhere
And its really getting difficult
To get beyond despair
So that becomes our problem
our habitat is lost
and closer encounters of the human kind
are sadly at our cost

(Poem written especially for Catherine Garneau)about the animals she loves