Deborah Burch Poet Personification

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 December 12, 2016 at 12:48 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 December 12, 2016 at 6:01 AM Yes, it does, doesn't it? Very hard to write, especially since it asks for personification... HUGS for you. Deborah Burch December 12, 2016 at 1:38 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!!