Sanctuary

Today I am posting a poem I wrote for Big Cat Rescue, a sanctuary dedicated to providing a permanent place for abused and unwanted exotic cats, mostly cast offs from the exotic pet trade. I dedicate it to Nikita the lioness, pictured above, who came to Big Cat Rescue after police found her chained to a wall in a crack house in Tennessee. I dedicate it with the tenacious hope that human beings will stop rationalizing, that we will wake up and realize that making living creatures into a commodity, even if we treat them well, is not saving them from extinction. It is not saving them from anything but their own freedom and dignity. For Nikita and so many like her, having been made into little more than slaves, sanctuary is the best we can give to them. The best we can give to their kind is to give them the space to be who they are, in their own habitat. A cage is not a home.

Sanctuary

Abandoned, forgotten, neglected, abused
Forsaken, dismissed, mistreated, misused

The worthy, the beautiful, the graceful, the tall
The courageous, the cunning, the secretive, the small

Find refuge and comfort and safety herein
And voices who shout the unspoken within

In sanctuary finding they are never alone
Until hands warm and tender, point the way home

Sharyn Beach