Guest Poet Emily Sheela Talwar
A Voice For The Animals
A wolf's cry shatters the night's silence.
A tiger cries out in fear,
But the killers don't care,
For the money is there,
Killing the innocent and the rare.
A cow screams at the farm,
For its fate it is about to behold,
It sees the butcher murder the old,
Its family is dead,
The ground is stained blood red
A puppy lay shivering with fright,
While it's body trembles throughout the night,
Its mother should care,
But she isn't there,
Sold to be tested on somewhere
The animals are dying every second of the day,
What can I say?
People don't seem to care,
How animals lie there crying in despair,
We think we are superior when we are not,
Thinking about animals' feelings is what we have forgot.
A parrot squawks in it's cage,
Banging its head in mad rage,
Kidnapped from it's nest,
The poor parrot can no longer rest.
An elephant runs for its life,
While the poachers chase him with a knife.
Just for its precious tusk,
The elephant will be dead by dusk.
A deer runs toward the sun,
While a hunter runs after it with a gun.
Just to be put on display,
The deer will never see another day.
The animals are dying every second of the day
What can I say?
December, 1997
Emily Sheela Talwar's Questions:
Is this poem too sad?
Correspond with Emily Sheela Talwar at
mxt@rain.org
with your ideas about this poem.
The Albany Poetry Workshop