Queenie

• Gabrielle Jarvis, Grade 8
• Poetry
• 2014

Queenie, an elephant gentle and strong,
Worked at the Melbourne zoo all day long.
Seven days a week she’d give people a ride,
Hiding the hurt and pain she felt inside.

Travelling many kilometers each day,
Walking and walking under the suns deadly rays.
Her keeper, he failed to sense her pain,
Or see that poor Queenie was going insane.

One day Queenie got sick of it all,
Tired of having to throw a ball.
She came up with a mischievous plan,
To stop this pain, to kill the man

And so came the day for Queenie to act,
And with no idea of the huge impact.
She threw her keeper to the floor
And crushed him, so he could hurt her no more

For this Queenie was forced to-die,
Her last breath drawn under the Melbourne sky.
A sad fate for someone treated so badly.
Can you think of an event that ended so sadly?