Rest Well Now Tilikum
And still they die. Victims of human ignorance, ugliness, lies and arrogance.
Rest Well Now Tilikum. They die because humans do not stand up together to demand that laws be changed – that our planet be respected and that all animals be granted the freedom they deserve. Qumquat – Limba – Marius – Tembe – Satao – Joy – Watoto – Arturo – Ronnie – Cecil and countless more. All at the hands of human kind. Murdered, captured, enslaved, exploited, poached, used and abused. They die because humans lack a moral compass. They die because we are a tragic, lost species.
Rest Well Now Tilikum
Tilikum swam in the wild with his mother and his pod
Through the endless dark waters of Iceland
Slicing through the waves with carefree abandon
Guided by instinct and following the wisdom of the stars
Calling in the night to the great ancestors of his kind
May the soulless men who caught you
Wear this shame like a heavy stone
May it hang around your necks
And slice you to the bone
Then the day was split by chaos
And his pod was chased and torn
His mother heard his cries but could not intervene
The net was all around him and he vanished in the mist
They took this two year old baby in 1983
May the soulless men who caught you
Wear this shame like a heavy stone
May it hang around your necks
And slice you to the bone
His confinement started in Reykjavik
Canada played an ugly part in his slavery in 1984
In 1992 his imprisonment changed countries
And the good old United States Of America
Became his final, dreadful home
Even as age laid claim to his body
This beautiful, wild spirit was denied freedom
May everyone who ever paid to see you
Wear this shame like a heavy stone
May it hang around your necks
And slice you to the bone
These ugly jailors bragged of conservation
Research, awareness and education
They were far too stupid – too abysmally ignorant
To comprehend the burning, primal need
That a wild thing has to be free
May everyone who held the key
Wear this shame like a heavy stone
May it hang around your necks
And slice you to the bone
May you know he was never freed
Because you worshipped the god of Greed
On January 6, 2017 Tilikum looked up
His eye caught the beckoning North Star
His soul was done with this life of pain
His spirit soared high, wild and untouched
Chase the raging waves sweet orca
Find your pod – you are free
May everyone who ever touched you
Wear this shame like a heavy stone
May it hang around your necks
And slice you to the bone
May his spirit haunt your thoughts
When you’re weary and all alone
Rosemary Wright
January 8, 2017
