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If I Were An Elephant

If I Were An Elephant I am a part of a faceless nation. I am the poachers' whore. Because of this genocide for trinkets... I soon will be no more. Then... I was a warrior in many battles... An instrument of war... A tower with soldiers on my back; The odds were mine to score! I was once with Alexander the Great, Also with Hannibal... Great Sultans loved me and knew me as brave, Deemed more than animal. Now... I am trapped in snares and let starve to death; I am shot--SHOT with guns; My water-holes are laced with cyanide... Then the poacher comes. I am still alive when the axing begins... Too weak to move...or try... They CHOP...and WHACK...my face away for tusks... I feel each GOUGE...and cry... And so these tusks that were my protection Have now become my doom. The loss of a species, just for trinkets... Elephant...nom de plume. ©deborah burch 12/11/2016

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Darren White

Date: 12/12/2016 12:48:00 AM

Question, hope you don't mind.... Did you really mean NON de plume? As for the rest. This is exactly why I didn't send in a poem for the contest. It makes me so mad and sad how mankind treats each other and animals. This: "I am a part of a faceless nation. I am the poachers' whore." Exactly... Good luck in the contest.

Darren White
Date: 12/12/2016 6:01:00 AM

Yes, it does, doesn't it? Very hard to write, especially since it asks for personification... HUGS for you.

Deborah Burch
Date: 12/12/2016 1:38:00 AM

Thanks so much Darren for catching my typo!!! You are such a blessing!! It made me ill to write it... to feel it... to think it on so many levels. I debated whether to write it or not. I watered it down. *tear big hugs Darren!!