MARJAN
- THE PEARL OF AFGHANISTAN . . .
MARJAN
MERA JAAN . . .
Given as a gift from
Germany to Kabul zoo in Afghanistan
No fields to run in -
just a miserable enclosed barring land
You were blessed with
a beautiful lioness partner Chucha
She must have made
you feel no less than a majestic Shah
You survived against
all the invasions and the bloody wars
Behind your dark miserably
cramped closed barring doors
You were a survivor
that against all the cruelly made odds
And even threaten to
be killed by the unholy Taliban sods
But your loyal keeper
fought for your life using the Quran
Even the prophet
Muhammad - helped you to understand
That an animal is to
be respected - for he also had his pets
To kill you Marjan -
would in the end have its own regrets
But you were brought
down by an egotistical Mujahedeen
Who you killed for
stroking your Chucha for fun it seemed
In turn the killed
brother gave you three grenades as a gift
The damage it caused
you was more than - deserved swift
You lost your sight
in one eye and near all of it in the other
Because of a under
deserving revenge of a grieved brother
You lost all of your
teeth - with the blast all of your hearing
You then survived - to
the Afghans became more endearing
That they took it upon
themselves to then kill this very man
For the ignorance of
the situation as he did not understand
You had thought this
man was a threat to your lioness pride
As it was in the end
his own fault he was attacked then died
As the wars in
Afghanistan raged so did the famine drought
When it came to food I
am afraid there was little of it about
But the Afghan people
gathered in force to see you were fed
No one wanted the
Shah Marjan from hunger be found dead
You came through all
of this - skin sagging on a frame so lean
But for it all it
never once made you - ferocious or seen mean
And as your beloved
keepers walk with you within your closure
For all of your
injuries you always maintained your composure
Your name traveled worldwide
- and they all come to do their best
And after a quarter
of a century you had then laid yourself to rest
This tribute is to
you mera jaan Marjan – The pearl of Afghanistan
May you always with
Chucha - fly free high above this desert land
Higher and higher
with the longed for eternal peace may you soar
As the winds carry
along with it your once mighty and proud roar
Marjan - 1976 - 2002
- Kabul Zoo – The Pearl of Afghanistan . . .
Indiana Shaw . . .
-_-
