Captivity

      Captivity 7-31-05

I recall once a sad drama played out for me on the television stage
about an old gorilla rescued from a shopping center cage

They gave it a nice pen with grass and trees,
they opened up the cage
but the gorilla just sat there quietly
no joy, no thought, no rage

It simply couldn’t understand, couldn’t bring to mind
the idea of roaming free
all possibilities long left behind
except to sit and stare and be
and I thought,
Why, you poor dumb gorilla, you remarkable fool,
this is the most wonderful and horrid wisdom I think I’ll ever see

Now, before you sigh and call him a pathetic, brainless ape,
just take a little walk with me
back to the cubicle in which you spend your 40 hours of misery
If I were to somehow open the walls and gesture for you to come and see....
You’d see, my friend, that the monkey, his uncle, and his keeper
are known as you and me.