Saturday 4 January 2014

Canned Lion

I am with you
   in your cage
      lying on the cold cement floor
wondering what the hell it is all for
  staring out through the bars
      seeing the sunlight
 but not feeling the warmth inside
  soul weighted down
    by another’s will
       for our lives


Image credit: CACH

never to live as we should have
   never roaming wild as we would have
so much inside to be
desperately need to roar out
     to cry
       FREE
 
until it’s the end
   disorientated
     drugged
tossed out into a pretend-wild
    we wait
cannot escape
       until a shot shatters our body
            and we split

  I lie gasping
       hands over eyes
but I will never forget
   the heartbreak
in the angels’ cries

for there was no pride
in the way that you died
no great feat of courage
or show of intellect
or inspiration to create
just a coward with a gun
and an emptiness inside
who needed to feel big
and so decided your fate
to satisfy some twisted thrill
of watching you lie in agony
until you were still

no drumroll marked your passing
   just a solemn tree stood witness with me
         to your murder
and the sad moment your life force left form
     as your blood seeped into the Earth
your magnificent spirit
    was gone
   and society doesn’t even know
what it has lost
and as I kneel
because something needs to be said
     a horrible dread
falls over me
  part of me has died with you
part of the human psyche is lost
    at a terrible, unreal cost
all the wilderness dying
   silent, unheard victims
      of Man
  
someone as awe-inspiring  as you
     so pure
       so true
          to the original vision of Earth
deserves a song
   somehow I can’t,
it’s too deep
this horror, this tragedy
   this wrong,
nothing gets past the lump in my throat
       but as the tears roll down my cheeks 
the stars peep out and cry with me
at this waste of your glory

by whose authority do they write your death into law?
is man higher than God who gave you life?
how dare they decide
what your purpose is for
and keep your spirit in chains
til they decree you should die??

Man – the ultimate dictator occupying Earth
the Destroyer
should hang his head in shame!
Addressing the EXCO of the Amakhosi, February, 2014

First Global March for Lions, 2014, Durban
With Hon. Narend Singh, MP & Chief Whip, and Adv. Anthony Mitchell, Inkatha Freedom Party


Second meeting for the Lions with His Excellency, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, 2015

Myself and Xolanie Khumalo taking the message to KwaMashu township, Durban, 2015
2nd Global March for Lions, 2015, Durban, senior IFP, and Brian Connell


 by Christine Jordaan, 2014
© 2017

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