Carte Blanche
Help me find words for this poem –
In memory of Bat the baboon
This poem aims to point out how we as conservationists make decisions regarding nature purely from a human viewpoint.
People working with nature need to cultivate the ability to tune into the life of their project. Before killing Bart an attempt should have been made to understand how and why life failed him and shaped his behavior.
We make decisions about removing alien vegetation without considering the animals that have been using that vegetation for food or shelter for centuries and the birds that migrate to nest in the ‘alien’ trees or the buck that used it for camouflage.
Please help me to find words for this poem to highlight the above concerns.
In Memory of Bart
Bart was only a baboon, but ahead of his time was he.
Protected from howling wind, blistering sun and winter freeze,
shady branches of trees he shared with the bees.
From Table Mountain slopes, everything he could see.
Food was scarce but his family he could feed.
The mountain was his garden and plants grew freely from seed.
Bogom say Bart with with Cape Town at his feet.
Conservationists looked up and thought this we do not want to see.
The mountain slopes are a forest where natural flora once grew
(in toeka se tyd)
How long ago that was, if ever, no-one knew.
We think generations ago our "blommeprag" was there for all to see.
Bogom say Bart, this is our home, can you not see?
Our shelter and food was in that tree.
Gone with the trees, there is no place for it now,
Lets chop them and bun them to the ground
Three hundred year old giants, aliens somehow.
Bart looks around but his bogom comes without a sound.
Fear and panic strikes his tribe when the first tree hits the ground.
This is our home,where will food and shelter now be found?
Bart was only a baboon, but ahead of his time was he.
Protected from howling wind, blistering sun and winter freeze,
shady branches of trees he shared with the bees.
From Table Mountain slopes, everything he could see.
Food was scarce but his family he could feed.
The mountain was his garden and plants grew freely from seed.
Bogom say Bart with with Cape Town at his feet.
Conservationists looked up and thought this we do not want to see.
The mountain slopes are a forest where natural flora once grew
(in toeka se tyd)
How long ago that was, if ever, no-one knew.
We think generations ago our "blommeprag" was there for all to see.
Bogom say Bart, this is our home, can you not see?
Our shelter and food was in that tree.
Gone with the trees, there is no place for it now,
Lets chop them and bun them to the ground
Three hundred year old giants, aliens somehow.
Bart looks around but his bogom comes without a sound.
Fear and panic strikes his tribe when the first tree hits the ground.
This is our home,where will food and shelter now be found?
1 comment:
Bart was shot by the conversation department because he became a nuance when he lead the baboons to raid the rubbish bins at the university. With the trees gone and the mountain burnt the previous summer, the baboons became desperate for foods. Natural migration was impossible because they became trapped on the mountain.
The trees on the mountain was removed because they were classed alien. The result was severe rock falls.
When will man ever learn to go with the flow of things and that there is a wisdom in nature. We forgot about global warming. That was Bart's message.
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