Daddy left me at the zoo by robert margetts

 

www.robertmargetts.com

DADDY LEFT ME AT THE ZOO

Daddy took me to the zoo today

So, all the animals could see me.

I don't know what they would think.

I don’t have big floppy ears or big hairy arms.

                                                                                                                                                                                     

I don’t like to eat bananas

and I don’t like to chase my tail.

I can’t swing from a tree

Or howl at the moon.

 

I made some faces and waved my arms

grunted and pounded my chest

like all the other kids were doing.

The primates just gazed back at us.

Some scratched their heads

while others scratched their butts.

Just like my daddy does.

 

Some snarled and others howled

while others just sat motionless

starring back at us

with pitiful expressions upon their faces.

I thought one looked at me and smiled,

a sarcastic grin at best.

 

A mother sitting on the ground

appeared to be crying while

holding her baby firmly to her chest.

He clung to her

for fear of the strange creatures

from behind the iron fence.

I felt panic in his stare,

tears in his eyes 

and boredom

in his body posture.

Just like my daddy does.

 

And I felt hatred from everyone

locked inside that dirty cage.

They looked terrorized,

like prisoners in a Russian Gulag

not knowing their fate.

 

Yes, they lived in a cage

and yes, we lived in a house.

One has bars and cages

and the other has doors and windows.

 

Daddy always felt trapped

in a life he never wanted.

Mommy said that the door wasn’t locked

and he could leave whenever he chose.

“Open the cage and leave,” mommy screamed.

 

I heard her tell him more than once

that marriage wasn’t a prison sentence.

He was not obligated to hang around

with tarnished heavy chains weighing

him to a sad life.

“You are not a simian,” she said.

“Open the cage and just leave.”

 

Yep, Daddy took me to the zoo today

to see all the lonely animals

huddled together inside the concentration camp,

with degrees of depression

upon their wrinkled faces.

 

I grabbed my daddy’s big cold hand

and looked into his eyes.

He was sad just like the monkeys in the cage.

I thought he was going to cry.

He attempted to smile

and pulled away from me,

turned his back and walked

towards the zoo exit.

 

That was the first and last time

I ever went to a zoo.

And that was the last time

I held my daddy’s hand.

 

I hate the zoo

Just like all the monkeys do.