"Something about it that I don't like."
-response by an anonymous person
upon seeing a Congo pygmy exhibited
in a Bronx Zoo cage alongside an orangutan
given to him as a companion.
i suppose
an apology
is in
order
because
we exhibited you
in a cage
in the Bronx Zoo
because, to us,
you were
just another
exotic animal from Africa;
because
we put an Orangutan
in the cage
with you for
companionship,
even though
an Orangutan
to you
was as exotic
and intriguing as you
were to us.
i suppose
an apology
is in
order
because
we took away
your humanity and
individuality
just because you
were pygmied
and wild
and different from us;
because
hundreds of us
paid to view
you and came away with
the sick feeling that
something was
not quite
right.
an apology
isin
order
and i'm
sorry;
sorry for my
people's ignorance.
sorry for the pain
it caused you.
sorry, because
it's too late
for anything else.
–published in Cedar Hill Review (2000)