Whilst We Slumber
Poetry by Belinda van Rensburg A Spiritual And Inspirational Poem from All-Creatures.org

Whilst we in sweet and silent slumber,
are dreaming in our beds at night.
Animals in a great number,
exist with no relief in sight.

Bars of cages, built to hold
them in bondage all their days.
Floors beneath them hard and cold,
what a horrid, awful waste.

Under the waxing/waning moons,
they gaze up at God's twinkling stars;
their precious dreams just shattered ruins,
and hope still-born behind steel bars.

All they can do each day is pace,
up and down their squalid cages.
Of joy in life you'll find no trace,
whilst in their hearts a deadness rages.

In the heat, the cold, the rain,
they live their lives in dark despair.
Can't we see it is insane,
to treat them cruelly and unfair?

We've sentenced them to living death,
robbed of freedom and of being.
Now they live to dread each breath -
are we looking, but not seeing?

God's creatures born so wild and free,
living at peace with me and you.
Why can't we just let them be?

What makes it difficult to do?
We sleep and dream our pretty dreams,
in our nice warm beds.
We don't hear the voiceless screams,
which echo in their heads.