Oh, Hunter’s Moon Dim Thy Light!

Oh, Hunter’s Moon dim thy light!
Too many souls
Will die tonight

Your phosphorus hunting moon shines 
Above 
All night long
The poachers 
Love!
Your nightly cyanic shafts of lambent light
satanic sanguine conspiracy of fright 
Searchlighting wild lands
Of nature’s spilling sands 
in evensong.

There is no Dark of night when you shine. 
Your effulgence uncloaks, reveals, define
The rare rhino in sublime outline
silhouetted
as plain as day! 

Their poachers will find their prey 

Beneath the moon of blood
These good-for-nothing crud
Hunt for rhino horn.
To trade forlorn potion—
(comprised of keratin—compressed nails and hair; 
There is no aphrodisiac there!) 

The endangered rhino is running blind
With fear
her young calf follows
close behind
They run and run—
across the plain 
to find
some refuge—
 all in vain

The last survivors may not see tomorrow’s day.

Far away 
a ranger screams,
“Save the Rhino!
Make haste, make speed!”

“Save the Rhino!“ pleads the ranger, “from the danger and the greed”
But
no one 
heeds

So we can only pray; 
For there is no saving one
today 

Yet again 
The rhino’s caught 
And slain 
It’s horn 
is sold 
and bought 

The rhino had nowhere to hide 
They stole the horn 

The rhino cried,
“T’was your gleam
Oh, Blood Moon
That too soon
conspired 
to close my life!
What was the need
To make me bleed?”

And so she died. 
The orphaned calf 
Beside her side
Was left alone 
To dream. 

No time to shade the Hunter’s moonbeam. 
No time to listen to a scream.


Lesley Scoble October 2022

Save the Rhino

Once upon a time, there were thousands of rhino roaming and grazing upon the planet.

• On average a rhino is poached every 22 hours.
• There are five rhino species: three in Asia, two in Africa.
• Two rhino species have fewer than eighty animals left.

Please find out more and help Save the Rhino here

My poem Oh, Hunters Moon Dim Thy Light! is in response to the d’Verse poetry ‘Mooning Around’ challenge. My thanks to the host Sarahsouthwest and all at d’Verse for encouraging me to write this poem.