Shooting An Elephant Poem by Sengiyumva Thiery

Sengiyumva Thiery


Shooting an elephant
I despise such act for it is irrelevant
To shoot a beast that seems peaceful so that the spectators may feast.
For long I have endures jeers from the natives
They didn't seem to understand my dilemma,
For I too apposed the english occupation of Burma.

I have seen the evil that english imperialism brings
For an inimitable land captivates inimitable kings.
The evidence of this is everywhere
From the wretched prisoners, to the men who had been flogged with bamboos beyond compare
And all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt,
For all the blood that imperialism has spilt.

It was one morning at the beginning of a rainy season
An incident occurred that enlightened me with motives of treason.
This must be the work of imperialism I thought with reason.
An elephant is loose in a bazaar in a poor section of town
A Burmese sub-inspector phoned me to come and put it down.

The elephant had broken its chain and run away,
Its mahout pursued it in the wrong direction and was now many miles away.
It had demolished a hut, overturned a garbage van, killed a cow
and consumed everything that it's stomach could allow.

I grabbed a Winchester and traveled to the site
A Winchester is not powerful enough to kill an elephant
but the noise will fright it

Time
Time went by
The elephant had killed a guy
His body is a ghastly sight
The spectators will have the elephant for dinner tonight
His skin is torn from his back,
I must borrow an elephant gun and fight back,
His head wrenched lopsided
The elephant doesn't seem to be subsided,
His teeth clenched in agony
will I have to commit this great atrocity,
Shooting an elephant.