by Jonel Abellanosa
“Marius the reticulated giraffe died at the Copenhagen Zoo on Sunday . . . The cause of death was a shotgun blast, and after a public autopsy, the animal, who was 11 feet 6 inches, was fed to the zoo’s lions and other big cats.” -- The New York Times, February 9, 2014
Nazi
Eugenicists
would
also
never
pause
to take
into
account
why
a healthy
peaceful
lovable
giraffe named
Marius shouldn’t
be
euthanized then
dismembered so children
visiting the zoo
may
watch and see
how civilized
hungry lions
could also be
Jonel Abellanosa resides in Cebu
City, the Philippines. His poetry is
forthcoming in Anglican Theological
Review, Mobius Journal of Social Change, Inwood Indiana Press, and has
appeared in Windhover, PEN Peace Mindanao
anthology, Star*Line, Golden Lantern, Poetry Quarterly, New Verse News,
Qarrtsiluni, Anak Sastra: Stories for Southeast Asia, Fox Chase Review, Burning
Word, Barefoot Review, Red River
Review, Philippines Free Press, Philippine
Graphic. He is working on his first
poetry collection, Multiverse.