Shared Plight by Kamilah Aisha Moon

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend September 21, 2016   Shared Plight   Kamilah Aisha Moon

Bound to whims, bred solely for circuses of desire. To hell with savannahs, towns like Rosewood.   Domestics or domesticated, one name or surnamed, creatures the dominant ones can’t live without would truly flourish without such devious love, golden corrals.   Harnessed. Muzzled. Stocks and bonds. Chains and whips held by hand.  Ota Benga in a Bronx cage, Saartjie Baartman on display— funds sent to her village didn’t make it okay. Harambe, Tamir, Cecil, Freddie—names of the hunted, captives bleed together. The captors beasts to all but themselves and their own.   Two endangered beings in a moat stare into each other's eyes.   Slower than light, mercy must not survive entry into our atmosphere, never reaching those who lose unbridled lives long before they die in this world of zoos and conquerors who treat earthlings like aliens.            Copyright © 2016 Kamilah Aisha Moon. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “This poem came after watching the video of the tragedy at the Cincinnati Zoo involving a 450-pound gorilla and a three-year-old black boy who had fallen into the moat. The terror and tender recognition between them; the deep ironies and shady ethics caught in those fraught minutes, and what the public outrage expressed indicates about the paradoxical nature of humanity, long legacies of brutality that continue.” —Kamilah Aisha Moon   Kamilah Aisha Moon is the author of She Has a Name (Four Way Books, 2013). She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Poetry by Moon   She Has a Name (Four Way Books, 2013)  "Ota Benga at Edenkraal" by Yusef Komunyakaa "Double View of the Adirondacks as Reflected Over Lake Champlain from Waterfront Park" by Major Jackson "Duende" by Tracy K. Smith Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038