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jbdvet75Poems
He came as an orphan June 26th, 1865 Having seen the death of his mother Chased and speared by a hunter First African elephant in Europe At the London Zoo All alone in all of Europe How he broke and wore his tusks In the iron of his enclosure In night pain from toothaches From many rotten teeth Caused by his only grass hay diet Given whiskey and beer to calm Shared with his keeper Matthew Scott, a difficult man With no close friends But with a deep empathy for animals Who drank whiskey with Jumbo Into the late, lonely night Jumbo liked whiskey, beer and lots of sticky buns A problematic elephant With a Jekyll and Hyde character Sold for 2,000 pounds To PT Barnum as a star attraction Jumbo tearing his chains away Then sitting like a mule Until he knew his keeper Would also ride the boat Across the big pond Barnum’s Scott Made a deal Queen Victoria wasn’t happy Her children had sat And rode upon his back Jumbomania in America Accompanied his arrival 20 million saw him alive Brooklyn bridge opened in 1882 A year before Jumbo arrived Then 17 May, 1884 Twenty elephants marched across All the way to Brooklyn led by Jumbo The bridge vibrated and rebounded In St Thomas, Ontario, Canada was his suffering demise The day the circus train came to town Tom Thumb and Jumbo Were waiting to get loaded Perhaps bumped in the **** By the speeding freight locomotive Internal bleeding and a slow death Tom Thumb only a broken leg Jumbo in a slow death Scott in a slow death afterwards Having witnessed the last breath Of his best friend Photographed (a recent novelty) just after his death in B&W Poor dead Jumbo Scott at his head Weeping inconsolably Although PT Barnum In pure PT Barnum invention Says Jumbo ran headfirst Into the freight locomotive To save his keeper and Tom Thumb Jumbo died at twenty-four still young and growing in size and girth His stuffed mounted skin burned at Tufts University except the unbroken bones plus the end of his tail “And this is what remains of Jumbo” Yesterday, I saw wild elephants on the banks of the Zambezi river near Victoria Falls Tomorrow I’m hoping to touch Jumbo’s bones in New York City And walk the Brooklyn Bridge ©  2017 Jim Davis
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Nov 15, 2018
Nov 15, 2018 at 12:42 PM UTC
Hello Jumbo
He came as an orphan June 26th, 1865 Having seen the death of his mother Chased and speared by a hunter First African elephant in Europe At the London Zoo All alone in all of Europe How he broke and wore his tusks In the iron of his enclosure In night pain from toothaches From many rotten teeth Caused by his only grass hay diet Given whiskey and beer to calm Shared with his keeper Matthew Scott, a difficult man With no close friends But with a deep empathy for animals Who drank whiskey with Jumbo Into the late, lonely night Jumbo liked whiskey, beer and lots of sticky buns A problematic elephant With a Jekyll and Hyde character Sold for 2,000 pounds To PT Barnum as a star attraction Jumbo tearing his chains away Then sitting like a mule Until he knew his keeper Would also ride the boat Across the big pond Barnum’s Scott Made a deal Queen Victoria wasn’t happy Her children had sat And rode upon his back Jumbomania in America Accompanied his arrival 20 million saw him alive Brooklyn bridge opened in 1882 A year before Jumbo arrived Then 17 May, 1884 Twenty elephants marched across All the way to Brooklyn led by Jumbo The bridge vibrated and rebounded In St Thomas, Ontario, Canada was his suffering demise The day the circus train came to town Tom Thumb and Jumbo Were waiting to get loaded Perhaps bumped in the **** By the speeding freight locomotive Internal bleeding and a slow death Tom Thumb only a broken leg Jumbo in a slow death Scott in a slow death afterwards Having witnessed the last breath Of his best friend Photographed (a recent novelty) just after his death in B&W Poor dead Jumbo Scott at his head Weeping inconsolably Although PT Barnum In pure PT Barnum invention Says Jumbo ran headfirst Into the freight locomotive To save his keeper and Tom Thumb Jumbo died at twenty-four still young and growing in size and girth His stuffed mounted skin burned at Tufts University except the unbroken bones plus the end of his tail “And this is what remains of Jumbo” Yesterday, I saw wild elephants on the banks of the Zambezi river near Victoria Falls Tomorrow I’m hoping to touch Jumbo’s bones in New York City And walk the Brooklyn Bridge ©  2017 Jim Davis
Jumbo in Swahili means Hello Written on an UAE Emirates flight from South Africa to New York. With all credit due for words and most phrasing to David Attenborough’s documentary. “Attenborough and the Giant Elephant” A few years ago, I heard Barnum and Bailey stopped having elephants as part of their shows! I really wondered why! Now I really know!
#jumbo#elephant#brooklyn#bridge#new#york
jbdvet75
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jbdvet75
Nov 15, 2018
Nov 15, 2018 at 12:42 PM UTC
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