My submission
King in Chains
Here we are all alone ~ mummy is gone, my siblings are sick, taken too soon, we are not thriving
You cuddle me, kiss me, hold me & twist me, I am not your toy, just a little boy missing his mummy
I get big quick, now you follow me yielding sticks, I climb a tree to pose for photos, you follow me home holding my tail ~ is this fun for you, because for me it’s not, it maybe what I was born for ~ but it shouldn’t be my lot
What of me now ~ no longer a cub ~ too big for you to cuddle, to boisterous for you to walk, if only I could talk, I’d say ‘take me home to mummy’
Back to the farm ~ what is my fate ??!!?? Mummy’s still calling for more siblings lost, I’m angry, confused ~ but most of all lost!!
Into the pound with 100 other lions, we fight for bones ~ dinners always an argument, we are sickly & week, taken away from our mummy’s ~ the future was always bleak
Across the way the pick of the crop, glorious mane’s, black, tawny & some white ones ~ gorgeous aren’t they, surely their futures are sunny ……….. but wait !! Big & handsome or sickly & weak our futures the same ~ it was always bleak.
A tawny male on a beautiful day gets taken away ~ is he going to be cuddled or walked with sticks ~ shot’s ring out ~ maybe four, maybe six ~ he doesn’t come back, where is he gone ?? Maybe to England or America to become a statue a chair or maybe a rug ~ shot by some sick egotist for some pounds or some bucks.
Is THAT my fate, when will it end, shot by some egotist who wasn’t my friend, but no that’s not for me ~ you see ~ our keeper turned up, the closest to a friend, he fed us daily, though it wasn’t enough, today he will shoot us & strip us to bones, 100 for Asia, 700 will follow ~ a sweet release ~ no hunger, fighting or sadness tomorrow
I should have been born the King of the plains, but I was bred for depravity
A KING IN CHAINS
I should have had wives & been a daddy to cubs ~ not a trophy or erection ~ YOUR wants or your lusts
10,000 in captivity ~ less in the wild ~ the odds aren’t even & when we are extinct, what will you do??
Wring your hands for species lost ~ but you caused this ~ you thought you were boss !!
The Wildlife Volunteer 