GIRAFFE

GIRAFFE

Big-hearted giant
in a screen-printed coat
picking sky fruit 
high up on your stilts

you
       can run from the leopards
       and kick-box hyenas
       out-pace the old lion
       with dinner on mind
but
       who will protect you
       from poachers with guns
       when they come in their trucks 
       for your tail?
then
       where will your calves go
       and how will they follow
       when forests have fallen
       and earth is all scorched ?
for
       you will be lost to us
       only a memory
       pressed between leaves
       in the history books.