The animals of the world exist for their own
reasons. They were not made for humans
any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.
--Alice Walker
for Divya Victor
Before visiting NTU (Nanyang Technological University) in
Singapore I visited monkeys at the Philadelphia Zoo (Prison). It is very difficult to witness pitiless,
unenlightened parents normalize (even CELEBRATE) the incarceration of innocent
animals for their children. In this
ritual I carried a small piece of celestite in my left hand with 9 blades of
grass plucked outside the zoo (prison). Celestite’s
name is derived from the Latin to mean “of the sky,” and it works on opening
our top three chakras: Throat, 3rd
eye, and Crown. It was important I chose
a stone that was capable of allowing any communications to pass into it as a
temporary battery and transmitter without the complications of me needing to
translate the messages for myself since the messages were not for me. It was up to the wild monkeys of Singapore to
interpret our unfortunate cousins’ stories from the United States.
I clenched the crystal and grass while making eye contact
with Columbian black monkeys, and white-bellied spider monkeys. Their faces were anxious and sad. The Columbian government was not demanding
the release and return of one of their nation’s most beautiful natural gifts
and they knew it. The depression of the
animals did not seem to register with parents and children pointing and
laughing, eating candy and enjoying their freedom. I did not care that they occasionally stared
at me as I spoke out loud to the monkeys, telling them that I am on my way to
visit our cousins in Singapore where they swing freely in the trees. “What would you like me to tell them?” I stared into their eyes and said, “I love
you little cousins,” then left the zoo (prison), putting the crystal and grass
blades in my left pocket. I took notes
for the poem before, during and after the zoo (prison) visiting hours.
When you know something is wrong in the world it must be
confronted. Be sad, be angry, be active,
and never apologize, ever! A couple
years ago someone overheard me saying, “Zoos are prisons where not a single prisoner
has ever seen a lawyer!” This person
said, and this is a direct quote, “But animals really are better off in zoos. It’s safer for them.” And so began one of the stupidest
conversations of my life and no matter what I said this person was confident
that imprisonment was the best choice for animals. “It’s a dangerous world out there,” they
informed me. I tapped the side of my
head and said, “It is not nearly as dangerous as the world IN HERE this
evening!” Conversations like this one is
exactly why I prefer all other animals over human beings! I LOATHE my species for the overwhelming lack
of empathy for any creature other than our own!
In the mid-1990’s there was a fire in the ape house at the Philadelphia
Zoo (Prison) and 23 sentient beings died that day. It was shocking, and when the news reporter
said, “Luckily no one was injured,” I called the news station to complain, “You
mean NO HUMANS were injured! How can you
say 23 died but no one was injured?”
The eyes of the captive monkeys haunted me and I touched the
outside of my pocket where I kept the crystal and grass. After I arrived in Singapore I asked my
friend Divya if there were any wild monkeys in the area and was excited to hear
that her husband Josh had an ongoing encounter with a wild monkey on the NTU campus. My eyes scanned the trees and lawns whenever
walking. For most of the week I kept the
crystal and grass in my pocket while hoping to spot him. The day after teaching a poetry workshop I
walked from the building to find a small group of people photographing
themselves with something in the background.
When I craned my neck I was excited to see two brown monkeys hugging one
another near the pond. All my life I had
wanted to see monkeys who are FREE. I
sat in the grass and threw several pieces of fruit to the creatures. One of them came over, then the other, eating
delicious melon slices, their eyes and demeanor completely different from our
enslaved cousins. I placed the crystal
and grass on the ground between us with a last melon slice. When one monkey touched the crystal under the
melon she LOOKED at me suddenly and ran away, agitated. I admit feeling guilty for causing her
anxiety with the message from our enslaved cousins but the other monkey hugged
her and comforted her. I took notes for
the poem as they groomed each other and ran across the grass, their movements
and play shaking off the humiliation and degradation of our cousins in
Philadelphia.
(P.S. It was my luck that there were two monkeys. My crystal and the messages from the
incarcerated monkeys in America caused trauma to the one and if it were not for
their companion I do not know how they would have been comforted. Because the trauma was quickly extinguished I
got to enjoy my day. This is something I
will never repeat. It is bad enough that
we humans cause so much suffering on the planet and I do NOT need to be
spreading it around. Healing needs to
begin and soon. The way we mistreat
animals is evidence we are far from being able to rescue our own lives at this
point. We need to start spreading
compassion. Can we begin today
please? I am asking this to myself, and
passing it along.)
