Back Home for tea
The world is now so small we can whizz round in our Leah Jets in no time at all. The logging companies have opened up the jungle to chop down the tallest trees and the hunters pour in through the new roads.
They machine gun rhino and elephant from trucks and light planes.
They take the tusks to carve and the horn to grind down as a cure for impotence (just what we need).
They chop the forest, murder our cousins – chimps, gorillas and orangutans, for bush-meat and still harpoon whales.
The great American hunters buy trophies. With a bunch of natives in tow they track lion, elephant and rhino and shoot with high-calibre rifle from a safe distance. They pay big money to kill off the last of the great beasts.
The palaeontologists say that the first sign of humans appearing on the scene is the total disappearance of all megafauna. We are the most cruel, brutal killers. We have the whole planet in our sights.
Back home for tea
Machinegun an elephant and rhino, or two,
On the African plain.
Then into the jungle
To pot a gorilla, chimp and whatever might remain.
Flit to Vietnam
To saw down a mighty tree,
Harpoon a Blue Whale
In the Sargasso Sea –
And back home for tea.
Opher 13.9.2016
😔😔😔😔😪😪😪😪
Cheers Linda
Reblogged this on Opher's World and commented:
a poem for the murderers.
As a Kenyan this just hits home because they are killing all our elephants and almost nothing is being done about it!
I know – it is tragic.
Don’t worry Opher the rat is waiting in the wings and he is increasing in numbers. He needs no running hot water or electricity and he is very adaptable. Martin Rees the famous cosmologist questions whether we will survive the century without breakdown. I think it will be a fragmentation and set back to a middle -ages economy , of course it won’t bring back the elephant but the rat may take his place as top dog.
That’s not a nice thought Kertsen. A world full of rats and cockroaches is not sas appealing as one full of elephants, lions and chimps.
The rat and cockroach would not agree Opher nature is amoral and knows nothing of our sweet platitudes. We used to sing ‘ All things bright and beautiful ‘ but the enlightenment revealed some things were dark and menacing.
Psychology has also revealed a dark and menacing side to human nature , my question is where did the enlightened moral side come from? How did we acquire this unnatural conscience that abhors the cruelty of nature . I read that the SS guards liked to feed the birds and we know even murderers have doting mothers.
Why have we got these vegans ? What drives their totally unnatural philosophy?
The genius Kant said: two things puzzle me , the starrry skies above and the moral law within.
An interesting observation from Kant, Kertsen. Many things are a mystery.
Evolution has a reason for the way things were selected – including our perverse psychology. If I was hazarding a guess I would suggest it stems back to our beginnings as hunter/gatherer hominids in Africa.
a. In order to have a large enough range to feed our family/tribe we had to drive off competitors and predators – hence our violent, war-like nature.
b. In order to hunt (not being well equipped with natural attributes – fangs, talons, claws or speed) we have to work together and develop technology – hence we developed social skills and morality.
The two attributes of violence and cooperation often become confused. In modern society we find it hard to identify our tribe and strangers. On top of that we are psychologically weak. We are easily traumatised – death, divorce and separation cause us major psychological turmoil – witnessing horrific scenes cause us trauma. We are not as strong as we think we are. Traumatised people often become unstable, aggressive and violent. We cannot deal with our emotions.
A truly horrifying reality, Opher.
And still going on unchecked!
I know – truly criminal.
These abuses could be so easily dealt with if governments took action. The sale of ivory could be banned. Pressure could be placed on China. These criminals could be traced and locked up. More patrols could be put in.
Not sure I like the poem! But it’s darkest words are probably ‘back home for tea’. Banality and horror at what humans can do. Reminder of tea plantations and empire building or destruction of wild habitat.
What Georgia – you didn’t like it because it was a bad poem? Or you didn’t like it because of its content?
We humans are thoughtlessly cruel.
It was an excellent poem about an awful subject!
Right. I’ve got you.