A Century - Not Out!

What can I say? I’m blown away

My Mum  - a hundred years - today!

Her century has turned to gold

Mary’s story should be told!

 

In Kenya she saw light of day

When the Empire still held sway,

But that is back in distant past

Which perhaps long shadows cast…

 

Among the coffee trees she grew;

In wartime she was dressed in blue;

Then made a cosy home for us

Born after the last wartime bus!

 

Australia let the good times roll

As a warm climate was her goal

Here family members and dear friends

Encouraged her to try new trends.

 

Her UK life seems far away

No family now lives there today;

Words fail me but I am so proud

To say: “I love my Mum!” out loud!

(c) Poet in the woods 2023

Mum at one hundred years old!

A typical Kenya Coffee Plantation

Extinct!

This word sends shivers through my soul
The last white rhino dead! A hole
In our collective memory
A branch lopped off from Nature's tree.

Long hunted for his precious tusk
Poachers turned his life to dust
Their ignorance and stupid greed
Mean no white rhinos now can breed.

In Kenyan wild they are no more
Last lifeless form on jungle floor
Once lost, the link can't be renewed
In evolution terms, we're screwed...

Zoos remain a last resort
Film images will soon be sought
Frail vestiges of what we've lost
Man learns too late and to his cost...

More species vital to our lives
Are hunted to extinction, guys;
David Attenborough was right
Our world is in a sorry plight!

(c) Poet in the woods 2018