(revised on Mother’s Day 2017 – click to see the new version)

All creatures have Mothers
and whatever their shape or form
all Mothers have loved their offspring
since Earth’s very first dawn

Whether they’re high in the treetops
or in the forest deep
they watch over their loved ones
as they stir gently in their sleep

And Mother’s there to nuture
and lend them a guiding hand
to survive in a shrinking world
ravaged by the advance of man

But the Mother’s low is unanswered
by the calf they’ve dragged away
Soon she will depart this world herself –
the abattoir beckons today

The sow mourns her piglets lost
and the ewe her lambs’ horrific fate
All moving down the production line
towards man’s voracious plate

The elephant calf sways in distress
beside Mother’s body in the dust
A victim of loathsome poachers
who killed just to steal her tusks

So spare a thought this Mother’s day
for all Mothers large and small
They all love their children –
We must learn to love them all