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The glory that is freedom
The splendour of their spirit
Indomitable and unyielding;
The purity of their soul
With its link to the ancient world,
Watched over by the protective blanket
Of hallowed sanctity and sacred tenets.
Their transcendent beauty, allied to power
Visible for centuries, across millenniums,
Other realms too and dimensions;
They are an amalgam of the secular, the mythical
And the eternal.
Unicorns galloping in unison, as one
On a balmy spring morning,
Across the rolling, unconquered
Plains of Montana.
Occasional fences and barbed wire,
They hold no fear,
Neither do highways and railway tracks
Nor the gradual erosion
Of what was once untamed frontier.
The distinctive herd, with its stately canter,
White at the head
Grey just behind, ebony to its side
Appaloosa bringing up the rear,
Silhouetted in open space
At dawn, against the rising sun.
They have a rendezvous, a tryst
A secret assignation
On the banks of the Rubicon
Beyond which looms the equinox time-line.
They are the remnants, ancient survivors
In a world where nothing survives.
They must keep moving, night and day
Pausing to recuperate, in brief interludes
If their spirit is to endure
Even as they appear indestructible,
With their finely sculpted features,
A powerful mane,
Eyes that glint in the dark
Strength so colossal and primeval.
The world is changing
In a matter of hours, days and weeks
That last barely a moment.
Evolution turns to revolution
Just as sunrise turns to sundown.
Old symbols, ancient traditions,
Heritage, mores and civilisations
Are supplanted by abstractions
By the transient, the temporal
And the ephemeral.
The past is history,
The present is tomorrow’s history
The future an incongruous abstraction
Not worthy of thought and contemplation.
Rising skyscrapers and carbuncles stand
Next to, and in front of,
Ancient churches and cathedrals;
More and more of them
Ascend to the heavens
A lurid testament to man’s hubris
Just as the homeless and the desolate
Gather below, their lives
Reduced to an apotheosis of nothingness.
The polar caps are melting
The glaciers too;
The physical topography
Demography and geography
Of our planet;
The rain forest and pollution,
Carbon footprints and rising oceans,
The changing climate
The increasing population.
Contraction and expansion; space at a premium
Every inch, foot, yard and mile.
Soon there will be no room left.
Survival: The final frontier.
The unicorns had a premonition
Their gallop is unhurried;
Aware of their environment
And the effect of pollution,
Their pace is slow and measured,
The strides short,
The tossing of the head
Kept to a minimum
Interspersed with moments of rest.
Soon they will arrive
At the point of no return.
But this is no hollow act of defiance.
They understand what lies beyond it:
Extinction.
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