Lament For The White Rhinoceros

Goodbye white rhinoceros,
gone with your hide and horn.
Human hunters cut you down,
left you still and shorn.

Game keeper tried to guard you
with his rifle and jeep.
Could not outwit the poacher,
not even in sleep.

You have joined the dinosaur,
the mammoth and dodo.
Your bones saved in museums,
your fate was to go.

The green plains of Africa,
brown rivers once your home.
Vultures scour the wilderness
you no longer roam.

You were the last of your kind,
so this sorrow runs deep.
No abandoned child to mourn,
no widow to weep.