Black and White Image of an African Elephant - Image by Ele Footprints
They call me an endangered species, the last Elephant
That's a polite way of saying I'm on life support
I'm an allegorical dinosaur on the eve of the meteors
Obliviously munching on my salad while the requiem plays on the Savannah
A pachyderm Pompeii
Yet even when they excavate me;
the grave robbers will steal my ivory tusks,
before I make it to the museum
So that even posthumously,
This ivory on my face will be my curse
I know how to outrun wildfires
Thanks to my articulating trunk,
I can smell a lifesaving head start
I know how to follow the rain clouds,
It's an arduous journey;
I had to make the impossible choice
between staying with my dying calf,
and chasing the dying water
I know how to fight lions;
we've been locked in a mortal dance since they had saber teeth,
and I had a wool sweater
But I don't know how to outrun climate change
All I can smell is the change in the air,
and no amount of head start gets me to a safe distance
I don't know how to fight men with guns
All my poor calf knows is that his mother was bullet proof
His mother was gigantic enough to protect him from anything
His mother jumped in between him and the bad men
They hacked off half her face. And left us both for dead
I don't know what this thing called ivory means to you;
other than an ornament
But to me, it means life and death
They call me an endangered species;
a metaphor for everything touched by man
And I urgently need your help,
to get off life support
- A Jack Toddler Original Creation