Black Hills Audubon Society

A Green Funeral

In the veld in a place where the vultures would see,
he stood naked and killed the cancer with a single shot.

The headlines were sensational, censorious the words,
but Gaia received him without comment and asked no fee.

Too deep for the roots of trees, most lie boxed and rot,
while he is grown in the grass and flown in the birds.

by James A. Harrison

James Harrison is a project manager in the Avian Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Vulture restaurants have been in operation in South Africa since the 1960's formally, and for centuries before if you consider the Zoroastrians. Mainly, they provide supplemental feeding to vultures at a specific spot to keep the species from becoming completely extinct. More than eighty vulture restaurants are found in South Africa alone with many more in Spain, Austria, India, North America, and several other countries. They have proved instrumental in the survival of many endangered vulture species around the globe, including our California condor. The poem refers to an incident which was reported in South African newspapers in 1987. The man had a game farm with a vulture restaurant, and he gave his body to the birds there.

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