New poem - Taken

This poem was written in response to a recent item on the BBC news website which described the death of a young dolphin in the USA as people flocked to take selfies with the poor creature...


Taken

 It began as a dare, a stunt,
a young dolphin trapped in a cowboy's net,
its slipperiness handed round a harbour-side throng,
its face pressed into theirs,
to cries of go on, take one,
but no-one in the instagram crowd noticed
those dead prisoner's eyes
or thought this is wrong
and as its fight for life grew less and less
each click a frame of death
by the time the last person was offered a lifeless form
they wondered what had happened
and what they'd lost.


Jane Aldous 2016

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