Badger Lament

Entering our stillness as you will.

Go home and watch T.V.

Have you not enough troubles of your own?

Leave us alone to die

We do not understand why you do this to us.

Tell us what we are doing wrong?

We want to live at peace with you.

We have lived here for centuries.

We follow the same trails.

Eat the snails that hurt your crops.

Keep our distance from you.

Who started this war?

You cannot prove we are bringers

of destruction.

We have no weapons

We only want peace.

We will not fight

My family is in mourning.

Why must you tear at us with your dogs?

Trap us in cages,

Break down our homes.

A great depression fills our warren.

A darkness is spreading..

Despair..despair..

Is your life so difficult for you

That you must do this?

Will it make things better for you

If we go quietly.

Then we will

For we have such fond memories

We were free once

To wander through the evening dew

To build our homes together

And play with our cubs

Without a care in the world.

What have we done?

What have we done?

Badger Poem by Neil Mawdsley Aug.97