They came and went some time ago
Left their imprint deep in snow
To flare through history's dawn to dusk
In massive curvature of tusk,
Vast woolly flank in shaggy pelt.
An intelligence, expressly felt,
Of sadness in the way of man
Whose savagery of intellect, would plan,
A woefulness of short insight
In determining the Woolly Mammoth's plight!

Like the candle's brief, bright flare
Great herds, once roamed, no longer there,
Majesty's lost innocence
Now extinguished in intransigence.

M.
Foxglove
Taranaki, New Zealand
11 July 2020