Elephant Day Poem by Elizabeth Padillo Olesen

From Kenya to Tanzania,
from Mozambique to
many more corners in Africa
and Asia, you spread your beauty
which mesmerize all our eyes.

You, the king in the jungle,
You, the transport vehicle
You, a friend to tourists
in their sight-seeing ventures
You, the powerful and invincible!

But everyday you and your kind
are conquered, shot dead, fallen
to the ground, butchered, desecrated;
stolen of your beautiful tusks
for the market of lovers of art.

And we think that great art is found
in dead life, upon your rotting bones
and abandoned skeletons?
Shame on humans who see art
in dead and stolen beautiful life!
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A little contribution to the celebration of the International Day of the Elephants in the month of August 2015.