Stephen Derwent Partington teaches literature in Kenya and writes for the national press.
SATAO
Steven Derwent Partington
Satao, Kenya’s last great tusker, was poached in 2014
Cowards, let us sing in dead Elmolo
how the elephants have died.
We thank the cavemen, that they drew them,
that zoologists described them,
for the photos of them herding
which the tourists left behind,
for who would ever, fools, believe us?
Teeth from heaven to the ground!?
I stretch my arm out like a trunk
to palm the graveyard of its cranium;
it’s how, I hear, they mourned.
The brain within worked tools and language.
I have none: a useless pen
(it’s only good for drafting elegies)
and even then, no words.
We once had tuskers. Tell the birds!