Ol Pejeta Conservancy
rhino gravestones_ haiku
Rhino graveyard hurts
I almost fell to my knees
memorial stones
💔 💔 💔 💔
Copyright © 12/13/2024 by Andrea O. Corwin
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About the Creator
Andrea Corwin
🐘Wildlife 🌳 Environment 🥋3rd° See nature through my eyes
Poetry, fiction, horror, life experiences, and author photos. Written without A.I. © Andrea O. Corwin
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Thick Skin
Elephants in chains training for rides or photos bullhooks prodding neck author photo _ Tanzania Author Note: Elephants are sentient beings who live in families. Humans kill them for ivory and skin and feet to be made into tables. Humans steal their babies and chain them, alone, stretched out to break their spirit. They prod them with bullhooks or burn them, starve them to get them to follow orders. Some religions paint them and parade them for religious ceremonies. Humans want to make money from them through photo opportunities and rides. Sometimes, they prod a stick sideways into their sensitive trunk and give them a paintbrush to sell the painting (it is painful). No care is taken for their feet or hide or feelings. Don't help cruelty to continue to the gentle elephant. Mostly, it is Asian elephants, but African ones are also captured. We are slowly ending animal circuses.
By Andrea Corwin about a year ago in Poets
Foot Bindings
I asked my grandmother how she knew she'd fallen in love. I am not sure I ever did love him, she said. This was before I met my husband. I was naive, a naked spring, a raw nerve of a thing. That cannot ever be me, I knew. Sadness swept in gently like a Moscow thaw. It is no simple thing, looking into a woman's vast soul and seeing its foot bindings. Now, in Italy divorced with my skin singed off, when I say I don't love him mean: I have succeeded at feeling nothing most days and it mostly works. Do you want the comfort of Nothing? Do you want Nothing, too? Be warned: you'll never be free, even when you are nothing. Here is what doesn't work: Accepting the stages of grief. Talking about it. Sitting with the feeling. Missing him—no, the person you were when you believed in death do us part. Writing poetry. That, too. When I say I don't love him I mean: I feel capsized in an endless, starved tide. What sometimes works: selective memory. You must forget ripe tomatoes and his beard and feeling perfectly sheltered in a big blue world. Forget coffee in bed, laughter watching TV, blowing out the candles on the birthday cake and the quiet all-encompassing knowledge that you are chosen. Remember only how love turned to a banal everyday survival act, a trapeze act unsure whether he will catch you, how the warmth stagnated and became sour, remember the foot bindings and remember the resentment boiling in your veins as you stick it out for the kids. Six-hour Netflix binges help, too. A man's fingers tracing your spine. Frozen pizza at 2 a.m. Random trips to the museum just to stand near things that last a while. The realization that crying won’t change anything. Seeing that life is just a dream, and refusing to participate in your own suffering. Bite your fist. Walk on eggshells around joy. When I say I don't love him, I mean he didn’t break my heart, he just stopped touching it and it forgot how to beat right.
By Ella Bogdanovaabout 22 hours ago in Poets
Comments (10)
Another example of human sub intelligence yet in the midst of such debauchery done humans rise up to help and promote animal well being. Another thank you. The more who comprehend than the more who actively care
OMG, that was a heartbreaking gravestone to read. Tragic.
This is sad, humans can be awful
The cruelty practiced in this world had always astonishing to me. But human trophy predation of animals, especially the ones that have grown desperately rare is revolting. Loved your poem, Andi, even though greatly saddened by its content.
Wow, that’s heavy! The rhino graveyard imagery hits hard, and the memorial stones really pull at the heart. It’s a simple but powerful reminder of what’s been lost. Great job capturing that feeling!😊💖
That is so brutal 🥺😢
wonderfully important poetry! this made mme violently sad and angry! well penned and vital, Andrea!
Awwwwww nooo!!! 😥😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
This broke my heart so much 😭😭😭
Another one of my faves, and a beautiful haiku.